ao link
Twitter
Facebook
Linked In
Twitter
Facebook
Linked In

You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles

Robert Jenrick has said he wants ‘a significant increase’ in social rent homes. He must deliver

The crucial question regarding the £12bn announced at the Budget is the tenures it will support. Social rent remains the most needed, writes Polly Neate

Linked InTwitterFacebookeCard
Picture: Getty
Picture: Getty
Sharelines

The crucial question regarding the £12bn announced at the Budget is the tenures it will support. Social rent remains the most needed, writes Polly Neate #ukhousing

Robert Jenrick has said he wants “a significant increase” in social rent homes. He must deliver #ukhousing

We all know by now that our housing crisis has become a national emergency. One that has devastating consequences for millions of people. The Budget was the first major opportunity for the new government to show that this is an emergency it actually wants to solve.

It was the first Budget of the new decade, falling a decade after funding for social housing was basically eliminated. This made it even more nail-biting as we watched to see whether the new chancellor would raise the anchor and chart a new course on housing investment.

I know, as hundreds of thousands of campaigners around the country know, that there is no lasting solution to the current crisis that doesn’t involve building more social homes.

Does this chancellor agree?


READ MORE

Budget 2020: full coverageBudget 2020: full coverage
Sector gets £12bn for next Affordable Homes ProgrammeSector gets £12bn for next Affordable Homes Programme
Shared ownership Right to Buy likely to be applied to all rented homes funded under £12bn programmeShared ownership Right to Buy likely to be applied to all rented homes funded under £12bn programme

Would he listen to the chorus of voices urging him to support those at the sharpest end of the housing crisis? Or would he announce more money for the same old expensive homes with the word “affordable” slapped in front, which no longer fools anyone. If you can’t afford a property, you can’t afford it, no matter what politicians decide to call it.

We got some good news. It looks like our message is being heard.

The announcement that the next generation of funding for the Affordable Homes Programme will be £12.2bn over five years is welcome. This is the funding stream that includes the delivery of social rent homes.

“Seeing the chancellor talking explicitly about social housing and the responsibility of government to provide homes for homeless people and rough sleepers is, I hope, a sign that we’re headed in the right direction”

The new programme – replacing the one due to end next year – will provide £3bn more for housebuilding than its predecessor over the same time period.

A £3bn cash injection is not insignificant. It is a clear sign we’re moving forwards. But – and it’s a big but – we still don’t know how much of this pot will be earmarked for the social homes we most desperately need.

Seeing the chancellor talking explicitly about social housing and the responsibility of government to provide homes for homeless people and rough sleepers is, I hope, a sign that we’re headed in the right direction.

Warm words mean little on their own, but this positive shift in rhetoric comes with a commitment that some cash will go towards social housing and is a marked contrast with where we’ve been. Even five years ago I’d have fallen off my chair if I’d heard any reference to the need for social homes in a Budget speech.

After the Budget, housing minister Robert Jenrick said he wants “a significant increase in the number of those homes in the social rent category”.

Again, seeing the housing secretary commit to a significant increase in social housing is a very welcome sight. Any new social homes will transform lives.

Mr Jenrick went on to say that more detail on the plan will follow once the department has “spoken to and listened to the sector”. So we look forward to working with the government to ensure that the homes we so desperately need get built.

The fact that the government has remembered social housing was further evidenced when the chancellor reversed a decision from last year and reduced the interest rates – albeit by 1% – that councils pay on lending for social housing, making it easier for them to build. This sends a signal to councils that they can be confident they have the backing of government to build the social homes this country needs. Another small shift forward.

“Even five years ago I’d have fallen off my chair if I’d heard any reference to the need for social homes in a Budget speech”

But there is a long way to go. A decade of swingeing cuts is a long time.

And it’s important to be savvy about the government’s commitment to “ending rough sleeping”. The extra money announced for rough sleeping services is welcome, but rough sleeping is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to homelessness.

A total of 280,000 people are already recorded as homeless in England. That includes more than 4,000 rough sleepers and 126,000 children. It’s not what a successful or civilised country looks like.

If we don’t get social homes built, homelessness is going to continue. There is no getting away from that.

When you consider that we saw a net loss of 17,000 social homes last year, at a time when more than a million households are stuck on social housing waiting lists, you realise the scale of the shortage. This is why we need to see a big investment in social housing. It’s where the need is greatest.

As the government embarks on its agenda to ‘level up’ the nation, housing – and specifically social housing – must remain central to its plans. This, is in fact, the only way to get the job done.

Polly Neate, chief executive, Shelter

Sign up for our daily newsletter

Sign up for our daily newsletter
Linked InTwitterFacebookeCard
Add New Comment
You must be logged in to comment.