And they’re off

In his exclusive interview with Inside Housing prime minister Gordon Brown makes it clear that, in housing at least, there is clear water between Labour and its Conservative and Liberal Democrat rivals.

In pledging to guarantee the independent status of housing associations, the prime minister is clearly playing to the crowd. However, this contrasts with Tory plans to deregulate the sector and abolish the Tenant Services Authority. David Cameron and his housing spokesperson Grant Shapps would allow local authorities a far greater say in the provision of affordable housing. What social housing grant that is available would be opened up to councils where possible.

The Liberal Democrats would focus resources on bringing the UK’s 1 million empty homes back into use. Our House Proud campaign readers’ panel will keep track of just who housing professionals think has the right approach.

So back to Mr Brown and his proposed ‘new deal’ with housing associations. Assuming a Labour victory, should associations play ball? Labour’s strategists have clearly pored long and hard over the recent report in the TSA’s 2009 Global Accounts, which claimed that housing associations have £2.7 billion of spare borrowing capacity. This is undoubtedly what leads Mr Brown to conclude that ‘there is significant scope to deliver more homes at lower grant rates’.

On the face of it, this amounts to the clearest admission yet of imminent cuts to the housing budget. But at least this way association boards know to tailor their development plans accordingly - if they haven’t already.

It is slightly disingenuous of Mr Brown to suggest a ‘deal’ over guaranteed independence for housing associations as, given the £39 billion of debt that could otherwise end up on the Treasury’s balance sheet, it is clearly not in the government’s interest to do otherwise. However, working with the government to mitigate the pain of inevitable cuts is surely better than anxiously waiting to see how much they will hurt.