Decent homes cut to pay for £1.5bn building pledge
The government’s £1.5 billion investment in building affordable housing will be paid for through cuts to existing schemes, including decent homes.
The Communities and Local Government department has revealed funding will be taken from its growth fund, decent homes, and private sector renewal programmes to finance the building scheme.
Other departments will also be expected to cough up £930 million for the Building Britain’s Future pledge, which was announced by prime minister Gordon Brown last month.
The affected departments include: Business, Innovation and Skills; Transport; Children, Schools and Families; the Home Office, and Health.
The Homes and Communities Agency has also been asked to hit an increased efficiency target of 3 per cent in operational savings, and to find £183 million through ‘efficient and flexible management’ of its housing and regeneration programmes.
Housing minister John Healey said ‘tough decisions’ had been made, but the programmes affected within CLG would be able to bid for cash from the prime minister’s housing pledge.
He added that the government remains committed to completing the decent homes programme, and continuing to invest £1 billion in private sector renewal.
Sir Bob Kerslake, chief executive of the HCA, said: ‘Government has had to make some difficult decisions as to where funding should come from, based in part on the HCA’s existing wider programme, but there is a premium on new build activity and I am pleased that the sector has seen the benefit of putting an additional £1.5 billion into housing delivery.’
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Readers' comments (4)
michael barratt council tenant | 17/07/2009 2:39 pm
Another instances of New labour robbing peter to pay paul. In this instance the Government will likely enhance further their unenviable reputation as the authors of DHS failures and disrepair. It is a shame that ministers in between flipping homes and their managing their expenses they have not in an idle moment or two played SIMCITY cos any kid will tell you that keep on building new stuff and neglect the old and the lot will come crashing down about your ears.
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B.S. Townroe | 18/07/2009 5:01 pm
Whilst right to criticise the robbing peter to pay paul approach, it's hardly accurate to accuse New Labour as "the authors of DHS failures and disrepair". Whatever else they may be guilty of, they've invested much to address the backlog inherited from those paragons of housing policy, the Conservative Party.
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Isidoros Diakides | 20/07/2009 1:07 am
I'm afraid I didagree with Mr Barrat.
In my borough, Haringey, we've just completed the DHS work on c2,000 units and they look great. We are working flat out to double this number by the end of the current municipal year and we've got an extra £6.5m allocation this year from the government to speed our programme up. We are on our way to achieve 100%, hopefully ahead of schedule.
In my decades of involvement I don't recall any period, under any previous government, when there was anywhere near as much investment on council housing improvements.
But improving older council housing is only part of the equation; building more is as important if not more so in the current climate and I welcome the government's effort to do both.
I must also admit that I am a convert; after years of campaigning against what I perceived (rightly in my opinion) as New Labour hostility towards council housing, I am encouraged by the sea change brought by Margaret Becket and now followed by her successor John Healey, in the whole approach. We've seen the effective demise of enforced transfers, new freedoms to local authorities, enhanced powers to restart building council houses and so on, all positive responses to practically everything we've been campaigning for the last 10 years. I think it is important to acknowledge these things and encourage politicians to have the courage to respond positively to demands by grassroots campaigns, even when they have started on the wrong foot.
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michaelbarratt council tenant | 20/07/2009 9:05 am
“In my borough, Haringey, we've just completed the DHS work on c2,000 units and they look great. We are working flat out to double this number by the end of the current municipal year and we've got an extra £6.5m allocation this year from the government to speed our programme up.”
Dear Isidoros Diakides & B.S. Townroe
In contrast to the above this year my local authority (Crawley Borough Council) did not receive a brass razoo from Central government. Indeed this year CBC will have paid £14,583,100 in assumed surplus rents. Whereas in 2008 the then CEO of CBC claimed that there was insufficient money to fund the investment requirement of £104.7million that was said by CBC consultant Savills to be the minimum sum that would meet DHS and avoid disrepair over the first five years and as a consequence CBC needed to make cuts of over £23million.
Clearly, New Labour (DCLG) will be the author any DHS failures and disrepair arising because CBC has not been permitted CBC to retain sufficient monies from its rental revenue to meet its obligations to Tenants.
Incidently, according to Inside Housing: Crawley Borough Council debts: £0 Harringey 377,447,397
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