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No appeals for councils excluded from £1bn borrowing programme

Councils left out of a £1bn government programme offering extra capacity to borrow for new social housing will not be able to appeal against their exclusion.

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Picture: Getty
Picture: Getty
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No appeals for areas excluded from HRA £1bn #ukhousing

Ministers have presented local authorities across England with £1bn of additional Housing Revenue Account (HRA) borrowing headroom.

However, half the money has been reserved for London boroughs, and the remaining £500m is only available for areas where weekly private rents are £50 more expensive than social rents on average.

That means that Sheffield, Stoke, and Newark and Sherwood councils – all of which worked with Whitehall officials for more than a year to develop plans for increased HRA capacity – will not be able to bid.


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Inside Housing reported in July that some councils had planned to “challenge” government over their exclusion from the programme.

But a frequently asked questions (FAQ) document released by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government last week confirmed there will be “no appeals process” for areas which do not meet the government’s affordability criteria.

It suggests excluded councils “may wish to consider bidding to Homes England for grant funding for building homes for affordable rent in line with the Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme 2016 to 2021 guidance”.

The FAQs also reveal that councils will not be required to use up their existing HRA borrowing headroom before being allowed to bid for the extra capacity.

Instead, authorities can “swap” existing borrowing that has been earmarked for a development with additional borrowing through the £1bn scheme and use their existing debt capacity beyond the programme’s 2022 end date.

The document also confirms that bids for the programme will not be allowed to combine additional headroom, grant and Right to Buy receipts.

Councils will need to split applications for funding on a scheme where they intend to use both grant and receipts into “several bids”.

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