Was it a pass or a fail for the Government yesterday?
Last week, Florence Eshalomi MP, the Chair of the cross-party Housing Committee, said that the spending review would be “make or break for the 1.5 million target”. So, the question is, did it achieve that?
There is no doubt, it is the biggest cash injection to social and affordable housing in 50 years. It allocates £39 billion over the next 10 years to build affordable and social housing, the Chancellor said “a plan to match the scale of the housing crisis must include social housing.”
How exactly Councils, Housing Associations and developers (particularly the SMEs) will qualify and get some of this money will be clarified over the next few weeks. But will it help to get to that 1.5m homes? It will make a BIG dent in it, but the devil is in the detail. These are great promises but until the money is actually in the hands of the people building the homes so they can get spades in the ground, the 1.5m remains a distant target. I hate to be that person who reminds the Government that the New Towns Commission was going to report withing the first 6 months… and it is now 12. At this rate we’ll be lucky if a single brick in a new town is laid by the next General Election.
I provide the headlines below and we will report on these as they develop and become reality:
£39bn for a new 10-year Affordable Homes Programme
A 10-year rent settlement under which annual rents increase by CPI plus 1%
A consultation on re-introducing rent convergence
£2.5bn in low interest loans for social housing providers to boost their development capacity
An additional £10bn for financial investments, including to be delivered through Homes England “to crowd in private investment”
£950m of investment for the fourth round of the Local Authority Housing Fund increase the supply of temporary accommodation
A re-commitment of £13.2bn to the Warm Homes Plan to upgrade homes
Protecting spending on tackling homelessness and rough sleeping, and providing £100m, including from the Transformation Fund, for early interventions to prevent homelessness
Establishing a new local growth fund for specific mayoral city regions in the North and Midlands
Investing in up to 350 deprived communities across the UK, to “fund interventions including community cohesion, regeneration and improving the public realm”.
Providing £15.6bn in total by 2031-32 for the elected mayors of some of England’s largest city regions to invest in local transport plus £2.3bn investment in local transport grant
Multi-year settlement for Transport for London totalling £2.2bn
£3.5bn for the Transpennine Route Upgrade between Manchester and Leeds.
£2.5bn to deliver East West Rail “unlocking the potential of the Oxford to Cambridge growth corridor”
We’re watching this space with great anticipation!
Until next week,
Henry