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Morning Briefing: councils to re-examine housebuilding plans after rate rise
Councils have warned they may have to alter their housebuilding plans, following the Treasury’s unexpected hike of borrowing costs.
Local authorities were told “out of the blue” on Wednesday of a one percentage point increase on public works loan board (PWLB) finance, The Times reports. The change has been introduced with immediate effect.
Sharon Taylor, Labour leader of Stevenage Borough Council in Hertfordshire, told the paper: “It’s hideous to find this out totally out of the blue and means that all our financial planning is blown out of the water.”
The rate rise would “trash” the council’s 30-year housing business plan, she added.
A spokesman for the Local Government Authority said: “It presents a real risk that capital schemes, including housebuilding projects, will cease to be affordable and may have to be cancelled as a result.”
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Scrapping borrowing cap ‘has already had intended effect’ for council development plans, says reportElsewhere, The Guardian reports on research showing that private renters in England are missing out on around £70m a year when landlords evict them. Campaign group Generation Rent said factors such as missed time at work, cleaning bills and moving costs add up to £1,400 each on average.
An estimated 146,000 households have been asked to leave by their landlords in the past three years, with rent arrears and an alleged failure to care for the property the most frequently cited reasons, the paper reported.
Generation Rent, claimed more than half the public believed landlords should foot the bill.
On a similar topic, the extent of unaffordability in the rental market is highlighted by new figures focusing on Edinburgh. Only one in 50 on housing benefits can afford to rent in the city, the Evening Edinburgh News reports.
Out of the 662 on the open market, only 1.8%, or 12 two-bedroom properties were affordable for those dependent on Local Housing Allowance, based on analysis as part of an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalists.
Meanwhile, new housing minister Esther McVey has continued on her travels visiting an 11-home site owned by Incommunities in Shipley, Bradford. She was joined on the tour by local MP Philip Davies, who is also her partner. According to the Bradford Telegraph & Argus Mr Davies said: “It is vital that social housing providers such as Incommunities, developers and councils work together to increase the supply of high-quality homes for local people on brownfield sites.”
And marking World Homeless Day yesterday, an opinion piece in The Independent, writer and housing campaigner Nye Jones calls for a halt on the use of the word ‘homeless’, arguing is wrong to reduce somebody’s identity to a single, loaded word.
On social media
A Labour councillor reacts with dismay at news of the PWLB rate rise:
Massive 1% jump in Council Interest rates for new borrowing is very disappointing news. There is great passion for increasing council house building in @StroudDC and this is perverse at a time when we need to increase council homes to protect vulnerable https://t.co/G6KVbVY9g6
— Chas Townley\uD83C\uDDEA\uD83C\uDDFA\uD83C\uDFF4\uDB40\uDC67\uDB40\uDC62\uDB40\uDC65\uDB40\uDC6E\uDB40\uDC67\uDB40\uDC7F\uD83C\uDF39 (@chastownley) October 10, 2019
