The Budget was a kick-start, but we need to accelerate on home energy upgrades
In his summer statement Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced over £3 billion of funding to create green jobs, most of it focussing on the private sector where a Green Homes Grant will pay £2 for every £1 spent by owners or landlords on energy efficiency, up to a limit of £5,000. For those on low incomes, […]
David Garnett obituary
Few people have a detailed grasp of how housing finance works in the UK, across the private market and social housing. My friend David Garnett, who has died aged 77, was not only one of these but had the skill to make a complex subject accessible to students.
The housing sector is right to feel anxious about tomorrow’s Budget
March 11 is Budget day, and the housing lobby is right to feel anxious about what it will reveal. Despite some increases in funding by the last government, the current affordable homes programme is worth just £1.5 billion a year. In real terms it’s only one third of what it was a decade ago. Surely […]
It’s a do or die moment
All the main parties in the 2019 election are putting forward energy efficiency measures in some form. CIH’s John Perry and Orbit’s Christoph Sinn look at how the sector responds and whether it can frame an ambitious yet realistic programme and do its part in tackling the climate emergency.
The “right to rent” is discriminatory – enough is enough
It was only in June that then Home Secretary Sajid Javid apologised for the impact that his department’s “hostile environment” policies had on the Windrush generation, many of whom lost their homes and jobs or were even deported from the UK. His promised review of the policy is incomplete, however, and is one of the […]
The Tony Blair Institute is wrong – we do need to build more homes to solve the housing crisis
Last week’s report suggesting supply is not the answer to the housing crisis is just the latest in a series to make this claim, but it remains misleading.
Could Airbnb devastate the housing markets in key cities?
Ten European cities are demanding action from the European Union to help them control the growth of short-term lets in their local housing markets. The fear is that providers like Airbnb could become exempt from local regulations that enable authorities to control lettings in the private rental sector, because they will be under no legal […]
Right to Buy is shocking value for money – a sensible government would ditch it
Right to Buy continues to fiercely divide opinion. Here, John Perry argues why he believes calling time on the 40-year-old policy is now the sensible thing to do Here’s a good question for a pub quiz: what was Britain’s biggest ever privatisation? Was it British Gas, or perhaps water or electricity? All of these raised […]
The government commits billions to private housing – it’s time to fund social homes instead
How much has government housing investment been cut since 2010? Headlines at the time reported that it fell by 60% and many people’s impressions are that it has since stayed at something like that level. But as the UK Housing Review has shown by looking at the detailed figures over the last four years, the […]
It’s time to look again at revenue support for new build
Everyone agrees we need to build more homes for social rent and last year the rules were changed so that both Homes England and the London Mayor can help finance them via capital grant. The problem is that the sheer scale of output required – as many as 90,000 new homes per year – means […]
John Perry lives in Masaya, Nicaragua where he works on