The Week in Housing: Labour reveals Spending Review commitments and new draft NPPF
Good afternoon.
On Tuesday, Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister and housing secretary, announced plans to be brought forward at the next Spending Review, including a new draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), grant funding for affordable homes and certainty around rent-setting.
The plans also included a commitment to increase housing targets by around 50% and toughen local affordability assessments.
As part of the flurry of government announcements, it was revealed that Sir Michael Lyons, chair of the English Cities Fund, will lead an expert panel charged with driving forward the development of sizeable new settlements across the UK.
Ms Rayner believes the proposals will help social housing providers “plan for the future”. Senior leaders from across the sector immediately welcomed the changes as an “encouraging first step”.
One senior leader told Inside Housing on Thursday they had almost forgotten what it was like to have a government in charge that appears to listen in a way that can give the 142,000 children living in temporary accommodation some hope.
However, this optimism needs to be backed up by a cash injection, both into the sector and into local authority budgets. While the changes to the NPPF are necessary, development figures are still projected to fall for at least the next 12 months.
At the same time, cash-strapped councils have to make difficult choices. An exclusive investigation for Inside Housing found that Southwark, Islington and Waltham Forest councils?scrapped at least ￡240m worth of social housing last year.
Meanwhile, new figures showed that rough sleeping in London was up 29% in the last quarter compared with the same period last year.
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The new data found 4,223 people were sleeping rough in London between April and June 2024, an increase of 29% on the same period last year.?However, it is still lower than the record set between October and December 2023, of 4,389 people.
Another area the new government?will need to look into is accessibility standards. Conservative ministers promised in July 2022 to make certain accessibility and adaptability standards in the building regulations mandatory for all new residences.
However, this never happened. Consequently, campaigners warned this week that the UK had missed out on a quarter of a million inclusive homes during a two-year policy vacuum.
The Local Government Association demanded fixed-term funding agreements it said could unlock 200,000 social homes over the next three decades, while the Northern Housing Consortium called for the government to devolve and simplify funding for brownfield regeneration.
In financial news, Clarion reported an uptick in its pre-tax surplus of more than ￡8m in the first quarter of the 2024-25 financial year.
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Only when financial instruments are used for housing will this situation be made better. Whilst individuals get involved like small private landlords who seek to buy via rentals (they also have to include insurances and other costs in rent) this make housing unaffordable. Post WWII we had huge social house building and slum clearances with a national weak financial economy. We have a lot of unemployed and others going to university with degrees not worth anything. Even those with good degrees most will have huge debts which they will not pay back. I know of both degree owners who refuse to work overtime as to not lose out paying back their loans, plus a plumber and carpenter who now own their own homes, bought outright, in clear financial superiority over those who I know whose degree does not pay as much in salaries!
Building Surveyor/Project Manager
7 个月Back in the 1980s when I was in LA housing we had the Housing Investment Programme (HiP), which was essentially a capital loan for major repairs and new build. Such a solution for new build housing would be a good solution. It is additional borrowing, but of the sort commercial investors approve in that the investment into buildings, a long term, tangible asset, and the repayments are funded from rents, so someone else pays. Sure there will need to be government support, affordable housing is only a reality if subsidised and many on low incomes will still need Housing benefit support. But, it will reduce the HB costs over time. the huge HD costs that now exist are because Right to Buy resulted in social housing being bought by private landlords who charge high rents - the rent vs income gap therefore rocketed. Let’s face it, the housing crisis is massive. I hope this government continues to actively pursue these policies as we need them to work. It is going to take some time to have any real effect and it would really help if the Treasury would change the funding streams to be longer term so departments like this can plan a decent strategy.
MD at Bruce Boucher Consulting & Design
7 个月So where does the experienced workforce come from to meet these construction expectations. Add the complexity of volume installations of Heat pumps for new builds. I think this requires much more meat on the bone of expectation