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Budget boost for Housing

Communities Secretary Hazel Blears and Housing Minister Caroline Flint today welcomed proposals in the Budget that will support the Department for Communities and Local Government in taking forward its commitments to tackle climate change, build 'green' communities and meet the need for more affordable housing.

The budget sets out a number of measures that will support the delivery of the housing Britain urgently needs, helping more people to own their own home whilst ensuring that government is delivering on climate change commitments.

Decades of not building enough homes mean that too many people today struggle to get on the property ladder. The Government has responded to this challenge with ambitious targets for housing supply - 3 million more homes by 2020.  But with homes accounting for more than a quarter of national carbon emissions it is vital that the homes we build are of a high quality, sustainable and 'green'. Today's budget also sets a new aspiration that non-domestic buildings will be zero carbon from 2019 - subject to detailed consultation later this year.

New figures announced in the Budget today will also show that we are making progress on delivering the 3m new homes pledged by 2020. In 2006/07 there were nearly 200,000 extra homes in England - up from 185,000 the year before and the highest level since 1988.

Communities Secretary Hazel Blears said:

"I welcome this budget - it will help us support peoples aspiration to own their own homes and ensure communities are built in a way that will protect the environment for future generations. We are committed to ensuring that all homes built from 2016 are zero carbon. But we also need to look at what we should be doing to tackle carbon emissions from the rest of our buildings - our offices, shops and pubs. The new aspiration set out by the Chancellor today for all new non-domestic buildings to be zero-carbon by 2019 is therefore a particularly welcome move forward.

Housing Minister Caroline Flint said:

"This is an important budget for housing helping us deliver more homes for both families and first time buyers. Since 1997 95,000 households have benefited from shared equity schemes and today's Budget will support even more first time buyers to take that crucial first step on the housing ladder as new shared equity schemes enter the market.

"As well as considering how we increase the housing available we must also continue to think carefully about where we build. The new measures to support redevelopment of existing land alongside a commitment to delivering 200,000 homes on surplus public sector land by 2016 will mean supply of housing can increase without the need to use green field sites."

Notes to editors

The Budget also includes the following key measures:

• Zero carbon non-domestic buildings. In 2006 the government announced that changes to building regulations will mean that by 2016 every new home will be zero carbon. Today's budget sets a new aspiration for non-domestic buildings such as offices and shops to be zero carbon from 2019. The details and timeline will be subject to consultation later this year but making these would make a significant contribution toward mitigating climate change resulting in a 75 million tonnes reduction in carbon dioxide emissions over the next thirty years.
  
  The chancellor has also announced his ambition for all public service buildings to be zero carbon from 2018. A task force will be set up to consider the how this ambition can be achieved.
  
  In addition changes to permitted development rules will allow home owners to install carbon saving technology like solar panels and build minor extensions without needing to go through a lengthy planning process.
  
• Microgeneration regulations. Occupiers of commercial properties that install carbon saving micro generation equipment such as solar panels, wind turbines, and ground source heat pumps will from this year no longer be immediately liable for any potential increase in business rate value of these investments. This will from this year only be taken into account in the regular quinquennial revaluation of business rates, providing up to 5 years benefit to ratepayers. This removes a perceived disincentive to invest in the installation of micro generation equipment. We will bring regulations forward commencing this change later this year, with the next business rate revaluation due in 2010.
  
• New shared equity packages to help more people get a foot on the housing ladder - The Chancellor has announced that from April this year two new equity loans will be available through the Government's shared equity scheme Open Market HomeBuy (OMHB).  The loans allow buyers to shop around for the best mortgage deals and are simpler to arrange then previous OMHB products.
  
• Extension of land remediation relief to assist the development of brownfield land. Brownfield land is land that has been previously developed. This can include land used for industrial or commercial purposes that has since been abandoned and can in some instances contain hazardous waste. Because the cost of cleaning brownfield to a safe standard can be more than the land would be worth after redevelopment many areas are left abandoned. The government wants to encourage even greater use of such sites, support the regeneration of our towns and cities and continue to protect undeveloped land and is therefore extending current land remediation relief on contaminated land to the remediation of long term derelict sites (derelict since 1998).
  

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