2007 Pre-Budget Report and Comprehensive Spending Review: Communities and Local Government

Published	9 October 2007

Increased funding for housing, building strong communities, and helping to tackle extremism

2007 Pre-Budget Report and Comprehensive Spending Review

The Chancellor has announced today that the Communities and Local Government budget will rise by 2.9 per cent a year in real terms over the CSR07 period. This will take the Department's total budget from £10.3 billion in 2007-08 to £12.1billion in 2010-11.

The Government announced its intention to deliver 3 million new homes by 2020 - with the number of new homes being built rising to at least 240,000 per annum by 2016. Towards this ambition, this settlement delivers:

£6.5 billion investment over 3 years in new social housing to deliver 45,000 new social homes per year by 2010-11, a 50 per cent increase compared with 2007-08, with a goal of reaching 50,000 per year during the next spending review period;
£1.7 billion over 3 years targeted funding for infrastructure in growth areas, the Thames Gateway, new growth points and eco towns, including a £300 million Community Infrastructure Fund; and
£500 million over 3 years for the new Housing and Planning Delivery Grant, to incentivise local authorities to increase housing supply and help bring forward local development frameworks.

This settlement also delivers:

£2 billion over 3 years for neighbourhood and local renewal programmes, with a new strategic approach strengthening the emphasis on economic development and promoting mixed communities
£50 million over 3 years to promote greater community cohesion and integration in local communities

The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Hazel Blears said:

"In the past ten years many of this country's most deprived areas have been transformed. Government investment has renewed public services, brought over a million social homes up to a decent standard, helped to create jobs and bring a new sense of pride and purpose to every area. The spending settlement announced today will help us go further still: delivering places where people want to live and work, supporting strong communities that bring people together, and helping to tackle extremism."

Housing minister Yvette Cooper said:

"This Government is putting unprecedented levels of investment into the new homes that Britain desperately needs. Unless we build more new homes, too many young families and first-time buyers will struggle to get a foot onto the housing ladder. Government cannot achieve all this alone. Building 3 million new homes by 2020 must be a shared endeavour with industry, communities and local councils. This investment shows that Government is serious about meeting its commitments, and I believe that together we can build communities to be proud of for years to come."

Notes to Editors

1. The additional funding provided by this CSR settlement will be accompanied by value for money reforms realising annual net cash-releasing savings of over £880 million by 2010-11.

Local Government baseline and additions
	£ million
	Baseline		Additions
	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11
Resource DEL	4,224	127	293	436
of which near-cash	4,096	102	224	353
of which administration	287	-6	-13	-20
Capital DEL	6,105	870	1,232	1,419
Total DEL (1)	10,281	995	1,523	1,840
	£ billion
	Estimate		Projections
	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11
Housing UK	12.0	12.5	13.1	13.7
of which housing investment	8.1	8.7	9.1	9.5
Housing England	8.8	9.1	9.6	10.0
of which housing investment	6.0	6.4	6.7	7.0
(1) Full resource budgeting basis, net of depreciation. (2) UK and England Housing and Community Amenities measured consistently with international definitions from the UN classification of the functions of government (COFOG). Actual outturns are subject to spending decisions by local authorities.

For further details of Communities and Local Government's settlement and their Departmental Strategic Objectives over the CSR07 period, please see The 2007 Pre-Budget Report and Comprehensive Spending Review: Meeting the aspirations of the British people www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/pbr_csr/pbr_csr07_index.cfm (external link).

The Government today announced 30 cross-departmental Public Service Agreements, setting out the top priorities for the CSR07 period. For further details on these please see: www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/pbr_csr/pbr_csr07_index.cfm (external link).