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From the archive - three million homes by 2020 pledge was never a target, claims Beckett
Inside Housing looks back at what was happening in the sector this week 10, 20 and 30 years ago
30 years ago
Inside Housing declared Nigel Lawson’s Autumn Statement “bleak news for local authorities” after the then-chancellor revealed that money raised from council house sales would not be reinvested in housing.
Councils were given a ‘negative cash limit’ for 1989/90, meaning they would have a total budget amounting to less than the amount brought in from capital receipts.
Allocations to councils through the housing investment programme were set to be cut by 20% in cash terms and 26% in real terms. The Institute of Housing slammed the government, accusing it of siphoning off money.
“The government has an extra £1.28bn within its housing cash limit that could be reinvested without breaking its public spending target but it has refused to spend it,” said Sue Robertshaw, deputy director at the Institute of Housing.
Picture: Getty
20 years ago
Planners in the South West of England were accused of deliberately constraining development and inviting a homelessness crisis in the region after they unveiled proposals to slash housebuilding targets by 90,000.
The South West Regional Planning Conference was told that it had “got it wrong” after launching a consultation on its plans to reduce the number of new homes being built by 2016 from 466,000 to 376,000.
Outraged criticism of the plans came from the National Housing Federation (NHF), the Chartered Institute of Housing and the National Housing and Town Planning Council, which jointly accused the conference of being “more interested in constraining housing development than meeting housing need”.
Paul Smith, then-regional officer for the South West at the NHF, said: “The conference has got it wrong. They are behaving like King Canute, imagining that if they keep saying, ‘Go back’, these households won’t form. Limiting housing development won’t stop wealthier migrants pushing up house prices, and local people will end up homeless or living in appalling conditions.”
10 years ago
Opponents accused the government of backtracking on its housebuilding promises after then-housing minister Margaret Beckett said its commitment to build three million homes by 2020 was never a target.
Prime minister Gordon Brown had told parliament of the plan in 2007, making it a centrepiece of his policy agenda. But the number was widely seen as undeliverable in the wake of the financial crisis, as builders cut their production numbers.
Ms Beckett told a select committee that the three million figure was “an ambition rather than a target”.
Shadow housing minister Grant Shapps said Ms Beckett was “backtracking” on the pledge. “She has realised what we have been saying all along – the government doesn’t build homes,” he added.
