- Towards a regional affordable housing policy
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Posted 10.11.17
Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH): Article link
Figures just released by the Department for Communities and Local Government show that:
Chartered Institute of Housing head of policy Melanie Rees said:
"It's encouraging to see a 27% increase in the number of affordable homes delivered in 2016/17."
"However, very few of them were for social rent, which is significantly cheaper than market rent and the only truly affordable option for many people on lower incomes. The number of new social rented homes has dropped again, and has collapsed from 39,560 in 2010/11 to just 5,380 in 2016/17."
"We desperately need more genuinely affordable homes to tackle our national housing crisis and address rising levels of homelessness."
"Theresa May's recent announcement of an extra £2 billion investment was a very welcome first step, but we think the Government can go further in re-balancing its housing budget away from the private sector towards affordable housing.
"Our analysis shows 80% of the Government's housing budget to 2020/21 is targeted at the private market, with just 20% going to affordable homes."
See also the Quick Link below - Affordable Housing Supply: April 2016 to March 2017 England.
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Posted 02.11.17
Shelter: Article link
Developers are using a legal loophole to get out of building thousands of affordable homes across the country every year, according to new research using Freedom of Information laws.
Shelter examined how 'viability assessments' reduced the number of affordable homes being built in 11 local authorities across nine cities in England.
The research shows that when the loophole was used in the last year, some 2,500 affordable homes (79%) were lost from the number required by council policies.
Viability assessments allow developers to reduce the number of affordable houses they build on their site, if they can show building them risks reducing their profits to below 20%.
It means many developers face no penalty for over-paying for land because they can recover the costs by reducing their commitments to building new affordable homes.
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Updated 13.11.17
