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Northern councils demand budget action as research shows North-South divide in housing cutbacks
Councils across the North of England are urging ministers to “level up” funding at next month’s Spring Budget after new research revealed the scale of cutbacks in housing and planning services compared with their southern counterparts.
Average net spend on housing services among northern councils has plummeted 54% since 2010/11, compared with a 34% fall in the rest of England, the research showed.
The study, commissioned by the Northern Housing Consortium (NHC), also revealed that spending on planning and development among northern councils has fallen 65% since austerity measures kicked in. The rest of the country saw a 50% drop.
“These reductions are having consequences for the delivery of government priorities on housing supply, climate change and economic rebalancing,” the report said.
Councils interviewed for the study said they are “operating on a skeleton model” and “only meeting statutory obligations”.
Despite the government’s much-vaunted Northern Powerhouse idea, Inside Housing analysis of a new government formula for how housing funds are allocated previously revealed a clear divide between the North and the South.
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The NHC, which represents councils, ALMOs and housing associations in the North, has made a series of pleas ahead of the Budget on 11 March and the next government Spending Review.
The group, which last month joined the government’s Northern Powerhouse Partnership (NPP) Programme, is calling for the government to “commit to a sustained real-terms annual increase in funding for local authorities”.
It wants ministers to strike a series of “place-based long-term deals” with northern councils to help the government meets its target of a million new homes by the mid-2020s, arguing that “at least” 100,000 of them should be affordable homes in the North.
The NHC is also calling for a national centre of “specialist housing and planning expertise” to be established in the North and welcomed former housing minister Esther McVey’s idea of a “planning A-team”.
Tracy Harrison, chief executive of the NHC, said: “Our northern council members have had to be creative to deliver on their housing aspirations whilst under huge pressure due to cuts in their resources.”
She added: “We are ambitious to do more right across the North but to do this councils need a commitment from government to level up funding.”
The NHC study was conducted by academics at the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence.
