Could building social rented homes save the government money?
The government spends more than £30 billion a year on supporting people’s housing costs through the benefits system, around 15% of its benefits budget. Couldn’t some of this money be saved if part of the budget were spent instead on building social rented homes?
Fire safety four years after the Grenfell Tower fire
In the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower disaster, the government focused its safety efforts on replacing ACM cladding (aluminium composite material) implicated in the fire. Even so, four years later, progress is still slow. In the social sector, 78 per cent of buildings affected have had remedial work completed but in the private sector the […]
Affordable housing investment to lead the way out of the crisis?
The UK Housing Review’s annual assessment of government support for housing investment and what proportion goes towards affordable housing showed a significant shift this year. In Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland most support (between 74 and 100 per cent) goes towards affordable housing, whereas in England most has gone to private housing. In 2020, three-quarters […]
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 […]
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 […]
‘Reclassification’ is the spectre in Irish housing
Irish housing associations (‘approved housing bodies’) have had their finances reclassified so that they are part of local government, causing consternation in the sector at the threat of greater state control. This article is a response to this decision from a UK perspective, where housing associations recently faced a similar problem that has since been […]
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 […]
John Perry lives in Masaya, Nicaragua where he works on