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RIBA urges government to lift borrowing restrictions on councils to help build more homes
Central government should give more support and resource to local authorities to help them deliver a new generation of council housing in England, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has said.
In a new report, RIBA said it was “unrealistic” to expect significant increases in council housing without either greater funding or the removal of barriers to build, and called on government to loosen restrictions on borrowing.
It added: “While lifting the Housing Revenue Account [HRA] borrowing cap has enabled some local authorities to borrow more, it is only a small part of the financial solution.
“A range of borrowing restrictions still remain in place on local authorities, and for those that do not have a HRA, there has been little new government policy to support increased housing delivery.”
RIBA backed projections from housing charity Shelter which claims that 90,000 new homes are needed each year to meet social housing waiting lists.
The institute argued that building these homes would more than 250,000 new jobs each year and support economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Key recommendations in RIBA’s report include:
- The Treasury removes borrowing and spending restrictions on local authorities and provides grant funding for new social housing to help lower long-term housing support costs
- The Ministry of Housing, Community and Local Government provides local authorities with the freedom to set their own planning fees to ensure they can adequately invest in resourcing to cover development management responsibilities
- Homes England explores solutions to meeting the capacity shortages within local government planning teams and places greater emphasis on quality design in funding programmes
Alan Jones, president of RIBA, said: “The UK has some of the worst housing in Europe.
“We urgently need a radical new approach to council housing that will deliver safe, low-carbon, healthy homes and spaces around them. Housing that creates identity, pride and belonging, and helps to drive the recovery from the economic impact of COVID-19 by creating new jobs and boosting our economy.”
