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From the archive – Blair intervenes in pre-election rent row
Inside Housing looks at what was making the headlines in housing five, 15 and 25 years ago this week
25 years ago
The social housing sector was reeling after chancellor Kenneth Clarke’s Budget saw spending slashed by more than £664m.
The government also announced regional capping for housing benefit to clamp down on excessive rents. Under the new rules, councils would not be fully reimbursed if the amount they paid in benefit for tenants was significantly higher than the average rent for housing in the area.
Jim Coulter, chief executive of the National Federation of Housing Associations, said that 17,500 homes would be lost as a result of the cuts, delivering what he called a “sharp blow” to the sector.
John Perry, policy director at the Chartered Institute of Housing, estimated that 15,000 building jobs could be at risk, and called the Budget “another disaster for the homeless”.
15 years ago
Prime minister Tony Blair directly intervened in a row over rent charges in a pre-election move to stop tenants deserting his party en masse, Inside Housing learned.
With polling day looming the following year, the government’s proposed changes to the rent regime were put on hold when Mr Blair was warned that the issue could be a vote loser in the general election.
The proposals would have seen council tenants’ rents rise to the same level as those of housing association tenants – a move that was delayed until April 2006 following Mr Blair’s intervention.
Dame Sally Powell, a member of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee and deputy chair of the Association of London Government, which was lobbying against the changes, is understood to have raised the issue with the prime minister directly.
Regent’s Park and Kensington North MP Karen Buck said there was “clearly a political strand” to the wrangling over the policy.
“Some of us are expressing concern about both the effect on low-income households and the way in which rent policy has been used.”
Five years ago
The Treasury’s plan for direct intervention in the housing market was set to be taken forward in what was called a “seismic” move.
A detailed review of the direct government commissioning of new homes was to be carried out following a 10,000-home pilot scheme on a former RAF base in Northstowe, Cambridgeshire.
The move, which was being led by coalition partners the Liberal Democrats, would mark a shift away from prime minister David Cameron’s (above) ‘localism’ agenda.
Instead, the Homes and Communities Agency would directly commission housing, with the power to sell homes on completion.
A Treasury spokesperson said that £400m would be made available for the Northstowe site.
