This is a house builders' Budget

The argument seemed clear: an injection of money to build and refurbish homes to high environmental standards would not only create thousands of jobs, it would also go a long way towards hitting the chancellor’s target to cut carbon emissions by 34 per cent by 2020. Instead, the efforts of economist Kate Barker, the Chartered Institute of Housing, the National Housing Federation and others were swept aside by the lobbyists of the motor industry.

By introducing a £2,000 trade-in deal to stimulate the ailing market for new cars, Mr Darling effectively chose to save jobs at car factories over creating jobs in house building and refurbishing. Time will tell whether he was right. Nonetheless, it cannot be ignored that in what Mr Darling called the worst recession for 60 years, housing has emerged with the lion’s share of the spending headlines. The £1 billion in additional spending is not to be sniffed at. It is clear though that this is a house builders’ Budget. There are welcome measures to stimulate and support the mortgage market and, despite the lack of ‘green refurbishment fund’ called for by the Existing Homes Alliance, house builders will receive around £400 million to ‘unlock stalled schemes’.

Although some in the construction industry may complain that there is not more cash, they are in line to receive what is effectively a government bail out.

Housing associations who complain that this is a missed opportunity should also remember that a number of them have recently received similar largesse from the Homes and Communities Agency.

As things stand, none of this money has been invested as equity – it is all grant. This means no potential for recycled benefits when the housing spending tap is turned off.

There is still a chance for the HCA and communities department to change this when they come to decide which private housing schemes to ‘unlock’. Hopefully they will take it.