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From the archive – Gordon Brown pledges £38bn housing investment boost
Inside Housing looks back at what was happening in housing five, 15 and 25 years ago this week
25 years ago
There was widespread anger as the government revealed plans to remove from homeless families their right to permanent accommodation. Instead, councils were to have a duty to find temporary housing for just 12 months for families presenting as homeless.
According to Inside Housing, the move went against 10,000 responses to a consultation on the issue. The proposed legislation would mean that councils could only allocate permanent housing to people on waiting lists. It would also change the definition of homelessness to exclude anyone with access to “suitable alternative accommodation”.
The government said it expected councils to rely on the private sector to house homeless people. But the Association of Residential Lettings Agency warned that the sector would be unable to cope with new demand on such a scale.
15 years ago
The government unveiled a £38bn housebuilding and renewal windfall over four years, as part of chancellor Gordon Brown’s spending review.
Mr Brown said the annual housing budget would rise from £5.9bn in 2004/5 to £7.2bn by 2007/08, and pledged to double the rate of social housebuilding over the same timescale, promising an extra 10,000 homes a year.
However, that figure was still fewer than the 17,000 additional homes per year that economist Kate Barker said were needed in her recent review.
Some of the increased spending was expected to come from efficiency savings within the sector. By 2007/08, housing associations were expected to save £160m through improved procurement and £195m on capital works and management and maintenance. There was an overall efficiency target in the social housing sector of £835m.
Deputy prime minister John Prescott said the sector had “got a good deal” from the review.
Jim Coulter, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, said he was “pleased that housing is no longer the Cinderella of the spending reviews”.
Brandon Lewis (picture: UK Parliament)
Five years ago
The government was facing up to criticism over its “lack of strategy”, after taking the decision to change housing minister for the third time in less than two years.
Brandon Lewis was promoted to minister for planning and housing, replacing Kris Hopkins, who had been in the role for just 10 months after taking over from Mark Prisk the previous October.
Mr Lewis was appointed senior minister in the Department for Communities and Local Government whereas Mr Hopkins had been only a junior minister.
Brendan Sarsfield, chief executive of Family Mosaic, said: “Every time there is a reshuffle, there is a new minister and… they say, ‘I don’t want to talk long-term.’ None of them realise we need a long-term strategy.”
