Lifting the HRA borrowing cap should come with accounting changes
Theresa May’s announcement that borrowing caps on council housing investment will be removed was a big step in the right direction, and the issuing of draft regulations appears to confirm that the caps will be lifted at the end of this month. With reports of a Treasury fight-back, the concern was that restrictions could have […]
Why councils don’t use their borrowing capacity
Before parliament went off for its summer holidays, the housing minister Kit Malthouse said he was ‘at a loss’ to understand why councils don’t use their full borrowing capacity to build new homes. Always willing to help out a new minister, I’ll offer a quick guide to why this apparently lamentable situation has come about.
Government policy needs to return to building homes to let at modest rents
As the latest UK Housing Review is published, co-author John Perry describes how government priorities have shifted from direct investment in affordable housing to personal subsidy through housing benefit. If asked about how the government spends money on housing, most people would probably say they build council houses – but of course they’d be wrong. […]
Here’s how you can get access to all the housing data and analysis you need
For those who don’t know it, the UK Housing Review is the annual publication that charts in detail the changes in the housing market, government housing policy and investment, social housing, help with housing costs and a host of other topics. Since 1999 the Review has been published by the Chartered Institute of Housing, and […]
Poor relation
If you want to check out the government’s investment plans for housing, where do you look? Until a few years ago the details were all in one place. But new initiatives are now announced and old ones changed in every budget and spending review. And remember that in the last 15 months we’ve had four […]
What’s happening to the Affordable Homes Programme?
Ever since the Spending Review was published in November there has been uncertainty about where this leaves the HCA’s Affordable Homes Programme. In finalising the UK Housing Review, out today, we’ve been disentangling what has happened. Here is a summary of our findings although, of course, some figures may change again as a result of […]
Funding switch
Will the chancellor’s bid to halt the decline in owner-occupation work? The Autumn Statement’s extra investment for housing towards the end of this parliament is very good news. We could never hope to address our national supply crisis without government action. But the way it will be configured means a massive boost to homeownership, apparently […]
Q&A: Is there a risk that housing associations could become ‘public bodies’ and be ‘privatised’?
Why all the debate about housing associations and “public body status”? What does it mean and what are the risks and opportunities? The prime minister has called them part of the public sector and a think tank says they could be sold off in a similar way to Lloyds Bank. But what are the facts […]
Why the government’s ‘long-term economic plan’ should include building more social rented homes
There’s a strong economic argument for building more low-rent homes to address the massive shortage of housing according to a new report by Capital Economics for SHOUT (Social Housing Under Threat) and the National Federation of ALMOs. In fact there are two good arguments – that the capital investment boosts the economy and helps pay […]
We can’t tackle child poverty without investment in affordable housing
It’s a formidable task: there’s cross-party commitment to radically reducing child poverty in the next five years. Indeed, the Chancellor said in the March budget that ‘child poverty is down’. But is that true and what is needed to ensure that the number of children in poverty not only stays down but falls to 10% […]
John Perry lives in Masaya, Nicaragua where he works on