Tough times
While the likely demise of the Tenant Services Authority will set tongues wagging at next week’s annual Chartered Institute of Housing conference and exhibition in Harrogate, the real question is: how bad will the emergency Budget be for housing?
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If the results of a survey of 152 housing professionals conducted by consultant Pricewaterhouse Coopers are anything to go by, the sector is expecting a rough ride in coming years. Cuts in excess of a third to the Homes and Communities Agency’s £2.4 billion annual budget would take the sector back to investment levels last seen in 2005. Then there is the rumoured three-year freeze to the £17 billion annual housing benefit bill. While dramatic, this need not be catastrophic. The public sector may no longer dominate housing starts as in the past two years, but homes will still be built.
Many welfare programmes may well be less fortunate, however. A government keen to build the ‘Big Society’ should question whether it is laying stable foundations.