A wide ranging inquiry into the provision of new social housing and affordable rented homes has been announced by a House of Commons Committee.
Under review will be the Government’s ambitious target to provide 300,000 new homes by the mid 2020s. Currently within this figure, the proportion of social homes that local authorities are expected to build stands at 3 per cent.
Researching development schemes in other countries
The objective behind the inquiry is to examine whether the Government’s current plans to improve the amount of new affordable housing across the country are fit for purpose, the housing demographic and what can be gleaned from development schemes in other countries and jurisdictions.
Feasibility study will evaluate the role of housing providers to deliver long-term
The review will also look at the feasibility of what is in place and how incentivising stakeholders, including housing associations and local authorities can be provided to boost delivery. It intends to assess the role of local authorities as enablers and providers as well as what Homes England, housing associations and other providers should be in terms of long term delivery.
Government invites housing providers’ opinions to build a better future
Clive Betts, chair of the committee said: “We have launched this new inquiry to understand how effective the Government’s current housing strategy will be in meeting demand for social housing in the long term. We will examine how far current funding levels will promote new building projects, and what more can be done to encourage local authorities and housing associations to increase provision.
Shelter, the housing charity has said: “Over three million new social home would need to be built over a 20 year period to address social housing need. Amounting to 150,000 new social homes per year this is significantly higher than the Government’s current plans.”
Clive Betts added: “Over the last decade the construction of new social and affordable rented homes has stagnated. The number of new homes built in this sector has slowed to a trickle of a few thousand a year, while at the same time demand becomes greater and greater.
“Social housing has been left to drift for too long and we must ensure that there are coherent long term strategies to remedy this.”
The allocation of adequate funding will be on the committee’s agenda. It is also looking at what levels of central Government funding will be required to support this delivery over the next 10 years.
Written submissions to the inquiry are being invited by the Committee by 12 July 2019. It is interested to receive views on meeting the sustainable delivery of social and affordable rented housing to meet long term need and contribute to the Government’s overall house building targets.
