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The Affordable Homes Programme is more evidence of policymaking in a bubble
The frosty reception for the current Affordable Homes Programme is the most negative the sector has been since mayoral funding in London was rejected in the mid-2010s. If you look at who was mayor at the time, there may be a common denominator, writes Peter Apps
It feels sometimes as if the government believes it won infallibility in the election in December, as opposed to a moderate majority in a parliamentary democracy. There has been a worrying disregard for criticism, expertise and evidence from the small team engaged in running the country, which has played out in several policy failures. Given the scale of some of these, the terms of the Affordable Housing Programme (AHP) are a small footnote but appear to have sprung from the same place.
There are a number of issues with this new round of funding. First, as we report this week, there is mounting frustration in the North of England that they remain locked out of the most generous grant rates that continue to be reserved for areas of “high affordability pressure” – namely, the South East.
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This issue predates this programme but given the weight Johnson and co have placed on ‘levelling up’, it was one that many expected to be corrected.
The truth remains as it has always been: the absence of runaway house prices in many Northern areas do not indicate the absence of a housing crisis – just a different type of one. It is one that a government which professes to speak for those in left-behind communities ought to be trying to solve. There is no levelling up without housing renewal and there will be no housing renewal when government formulas direct social rented funding south.
What makes this even more galling is that in the name of levelling up, the budget for London has been reduced by £800m to £4bn.
This appears nothing other than a nakedly political decision in a climate of deteriorating relations with Sadiq Khan’s City Hall. It is certainly not indicative of the fact that the housing crisis in the capital is easing off.
To cut London’s budget without removing the funding criteria that disadvantaged the North means this programme has at least achieved some measure of equality: everyone is angry.
And that is before we even reach the new shared ownership reforms. For a full dissection of these, I recommend Paradigm chief executive Matthew Bailes’ column on our website.
Suffice to say here, in trying to solve perceived problems, the government is rushing ahead with measures which could fatally undermine the viability of the product.
It smacks of policymaking in a bubble without the requisite hard work to make sure the suggestions are practical and deliverable and that – unfortunately – is becoming a common theme.
Overall, I have not heard the sector this annoyed about a funding programme since the grant offer in London in 2014/15, which saw the terms made so onerous a number of large housing associations rejected the money outright.
We are some way from reaching that stage this time, but if you look at who was mayor of the city then, you may find the common denominator.
Peter Apps, deputy editor, Inside Housing
