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The government would consider lifting grant rates for social housing to help the sector build through a recession, the housing minister has said.
Speaking at the Homes 2018 conference in central London yesterday, Kit Malthouse told delegates it would be “foolish not to keep grant rates under review” should the country hit economic trouble.
The Bank of England has warned of a recession should the UK crash out of the European Union without a deal in March, although Mr Malthouse was keen to emphasise that he did not expect this to happen.
Rising reliance on profits from market sales to make the development of social housing viable means the housing association sector is far more vulnerable to a crash than in previous years.
Sector leaders have lobbied the government to consider lifting grant rates should the private market take a hit to ensure they can keep building in a downturn.
Mr Malthouse said: “It would be foolish not to keep grant rates under review if you want to maintain levels of activity.
“It’s certainly the case the housing association model of cross-subsidy is less cyclical than it otherwise might have been. And so we will be looking carefully at market dynamics to make sure we are pitching subsidy correctly to maintain activity.
“I had a delegation from the G15 [group of large London landlords] come and see me and they were sensitive about London in particular and I said to them what I said to you – that it would be foolish not to keep it under review.”
In an interview with Inside Housing, Mr Malthouse also said he hoped trades associated with housebuilding would be granted ‘skilled worker’ status for the purposes of immigration post-Brexit.
He said: “We’re very keen to promote the idea that there should be a skills and needs based immigration system and if there is a need for bricklayers and plumbers, and we have got capacity issues already in the market, then you would hope that would be reflected in immigration policy.”
Reacting to the news this week that more than 20,000 units of social housing had been sold in 2017/18 and only 6,000 built, the minister said he wanted to see “growth” in the number of social housing units once measures such as the removal of the local authority debt cap kick in.
“Part of us taking the cap off the HRA [Housing Revenue Account] is because we want to see a growing population of social rented homes,” he said. “Within the overall envelope, we hope that if local authorities grasp the opportunity… we are able to see a growing population of social homes given the various tools that are available.”
Kit Malthouse's speech to Homes 2018 touched on tenant stigma and the importance of good design in new housing.
Watch it here:
Kit Malthouse also took part in a Q&A with Inside Housing editor Emma Maier at Homes 2018. He discussed how the government would help the sector build through a recession and whether it should fund sprinklers in new homes
Watch it here: