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- Social and Affordable Housing investment
The Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP
Minister of State
Minister for Housing, attending Cabinet (2005 - 2008)- View Yvette Cooper's profile
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Social and Affordable Housing investment
| Date of statement | 12 December 2007 |
|---|---|
| Type | Written |
This government is strongly committed to ensuring that social housing meets the needs of all tenants. The John Hills Review found that while investment in social housing had delivered real improvements, tenants living in social housing still faced significant social and economic challenges. As part of the work to improve social housing we are setting out a series of further steps in five key areas. These are part of an ongoing programme of work to improve social housing make it fairer, more effective, and more personal.
Increasing supply and investment in bricks and mortar
Our first priority, as set out in the green paper, is to increase the supply of housing. By 2010, we will be building 70 000 social homes a year. To increase the supply of social housing over the next three years, we are today confirming allocations totalling £8.4 billion to be shared across the regions. We will be allocating £8.4 billion across the regions over the next three years. Every single region is getting at least a five per cent increase every year over the next three years - with areas of greatest need receiving far more than that. The Housing Corporation and later the Homes and Communities Agency will be tasked with spending this money most effectively.
We will also be investing £2.4 billion in the ALMO programme over the next three years. We expect that this will bring a further 150 000 homes up to standard. A further four ALMOs are joining the programme today, from Charnwood, North East Derbyshire, Stevenage and Redbridge. A further £200 million will support ALMOs already on the programme which have yet to pass their inspections. We are continuing to assess the remaining Round 6 funding bids and will allocate further programme places to ALMOs as individual funding allocations are finalised.
We will also be writing to all stock owning authorities announcing the 2008 Housing Transfer Programme. This will enable local authorities and their tenants, if they wish, the opportunity to transfer ownership of their stock to a housing association to bring in private sector funding needed for further improvements in housing, to build on the decent homes investment that has taken place, and for estate transformation schemes.
Finally, almost £2 billion from the regional housing pot will fund improvements to local authority owned and private sector stock.
Modernising institutional structures
The housing and regeneration bill is creating a new regulatory framework, responding directly to Martin Cave's recommendation that tenants should have a greater say over where they live and how their homes are managed.
This new framework will reward performance and innovation, giving greater freedom to good housing associations. The new regulator will have a range of powers to intervene where tenants' needs are not being met.
Initially, the regulator will only have the power to regulate registered social landlords. But in response to demand across the sector, we are committed to extending this new framework to local authorities as rapidly as possible. So I have asked Professor Ian Cole of Sheffield University to work with all key stakeholders in establishing the detail of how this will work in practice, and align with the new performance framework for local government.
We will also be conducting a review of the Housing Revenue Account Subsidy (HRAS) system. I have provided a separate written statement to the House on this review.
Improving housing services, mobility and choice
We know that the most successful local authorities offer their tenants not only a housing service, but housing options - a service which is more responsive to individual need and to changes in individual circumstances. We also know that the system is not meeting the needs of too many groups at the moment - often due to a lack of mobility in the system. So I am setting out a package of measures to promote greater mobility for social housing tenants.
We will be investing £1.8 million which will deliver eighteen new Choice Based Lettings schemes offering people the chance to move across different local authorities. A further £2 million investment in the next two years will enable all local authorities to be part of such a scheme by 2010.
We know that a major consequence of this lack of mobility is overcrowding - a problem which blights the lives of thousands of families. As set out in the Children's Plan yesterday, we are committed to updating the standard by which we assess overcrowding.
And we are today publishing an action plan to achieve that ambition, which has been placed in the libraries of both Houses. Initial funding of £15 million will tackle severe overcrowding across 38 pathfinders including all London Boroughs and five other hotspots (Birmingham, Bradford, Leicester, Liverpool and Manchester). We estimate that these local authorities cover more than half of overcrowded households in the country. This work will help identify costs and the time needed before we roll this approach out across the country.
Elderly people too are often affected by the lack of mobility, if they want to move closer to their families or to smaller homes. So we will consult on changing the reasonable preference criteria to benefit older people who want to downsize.
Finally, there will be an independent, comprehensive review of the Private Rented Sector and we will set out further details in the New Year.
Improving social mobility with greater opportunities to work and to own
Social housing in the 21st century needs to offer people much greater opportunity to progress. As John Hills identified, many social housing estates have high levels of worklessness.
The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions have already announced a £1.5 billion programme targeted at areas with high levels of deprivation and worklessness. We will be working to ensure that social landlords and tenants are closely involved in tackling this.
A programme run with the Department for Work and Pensions will sponsor five areas over the next three years to develop a new approach to promote wide-ranging advice on housing options alongside employment and training advice.
We also want to make sure that we offer greater choice to tenants in social housing - not just about where they live, but with options to move into other types of tenure. More social tenants should have the opportunity to progress into homeownership. We have been running a pilot scheme known as social homebuy to offer those who can't buy outright a stepping stone onto the property ladder. We will be continuing the pilots. Many tenants have been put off by the costs of taking on full maintenance, and so we will work with social landlords to develop options for shared maintenance costs before assessing the next steps to promote wider access to shared ownership among social tenants.
Supporting mixed income communities
Finally, John Hills found that single tenure estates in deprived areas were particularly associated with social problems and high levels of tenant dissatisfaction. We want to promote the development of mixed and stable communities, characterised by a mix of tenures.
We want the Homes and Communities Agency to look further once it is established at how to promote mixed income communities in existing areas. We will also set out a Communities Fund. The fund will work with local communities on how to develop greater mix of tenures. Details of how this programme will work will be announced in the New Year.
