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Government housing budget should prioritise social rent, says HFI
The government’s £44bn housing budget should prioritise homes for social rent and first-time buyers as opposed to expanding the private rented sector, the Housing and Finance Institute (HFI) has said.
In a new report published yesterday with housing association Radian, the HFI – which was set up following the Treasury-commissioned Elphicke-House Report in 2015 – criticised ministers’ strategy of relying increasingly on private landlords to provide housing.
It warned that reduced levels of homeownership and social renting are “severely damaging family and financial stability”, with six million more people living in short-term rented housing than in 2002.
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Natalie Elphicke, chief executive of the HFI, said: “The 15-year experiment of expanding the private rented sector on a huge scale has failed.
“It has left too many people facing exorbitant rents for poor-quality homes, with severe detrimental effects on their living standards and future opportunities.
“The evidence is compelling. It is time for a rethink. It is high time we introduced a strategy that incorporated both social housing and homeownership as priorities instead of peddling the usual narrative that one is good and the other bad.”
The report called for an extension of Help to Buy to hand young people loans or tax breaks for a deposit and mortgage finance guarantees as part of a 10-point plan for the government.
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And it said ministers should establish a national housing delivery commission to produce a 10-year plan for fixing the housing market, with a target for 90% of homes to be stable tenures by 2035.
Mick Sweeney, chief executive of Radian, said: “Something must be done to reverse a concerning slide towards the private rented sector too often characterised by short-term, insecure tenancies, otherwise it will have long-lasting consequences for many generations to come.
“Owner-occupation and social renting provides flexibility, affordability, opportunity and stability – the four pillars of a good home.”
