Morning Briefing: Budget pressure on Hammond

In the news

Disputes in the Cabinet over how to use next month’s Budget to resolve the housing crisis are well underway, according to The Times.

The paper reports this morning that Theresa May has resisted calls from Philip Hammond to reduce green belt planning restrictions. This follows the Housing & Finance Institute’s paper last week outlining green belt myths.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Telegraph says it has learned there will be a U-turn on Universal Credit included in the Budget.

According to that newspaper, ministers are preparing to reduce the six-week waiting period for payouts by seven days and may reduce it even further. This measure would directly address one of the main factors driving a rise in rent arrears among Universal Credit claimants.

Inside Housing reported on Friday that Halton Housing Trust is so concerned about some tenants it has issued suicide alerts to local GPs.

The Daily Telegraph, meanwhile, will surprise no one this morning with its contribution to the Budget clamour. It gives prominence to a report from the right-wing thinktank the Adam Smith Institute encouraging Mr Hammond to scrap stamp duty to help homebuyers.

This idea is given short shrift in an opinion piece by Andrew Rawnsley for The Guardian yesterday, in which he says such a measure would “utterly fail to address the fundamental problem” and calls for more radical change.

Scrapping the borrowing cap on local authorities to allow them to build more housing could be considered such a change, and City AM reports that the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry has called for just that in its budget submission to the Treasury.

On social media

Guardian blogger Claire Phipps calls for housing for the survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire.

Permanent, safe, affordable housing would be a good start t.co/5NrmwZePO0

— Claire Phipps (@Claire_Phipps)

Permanent, safe, affordable housing would be a good start https://t.co/5NrmwZePO0

— Claire Phipps (@Claire_Phipps) October 30, 2017

What’s on

• Sajid Javid will face communities and local government questions this afternoon in parliament
• This evening James Murray, London’s deputy mayor for housing, will present Sadiq Khan’s draft housing strategy to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on London’s Planning and Built Environment, followed by a panel discussion
• Kensington and Chelsea Council’s Grenfell Recovery Scrutiny Committee will meet tonight to give updates on rehousing tenants