Recommendations & Conclusions
10 items
2
Recommendation
Twenty-Ninth Report - The Affordable Ho…
Accepted
Housing providers do not always build in areas of higher demand. There is a mismatch between where housing providers build compared to areas of highest need. The Department tells local authorities how many homes, not just affordable homes, they should deliver each year but does not use the Programme to …
Government response. The government agrees to consider additional ways to work with LAs. The government will seek to improve this for successor programmes.
HM Treasury
6
Recommendation
Twenty-Ninth Report - The Affordable Ho…
Accepted
The Department does not publish satisfactory data on the type, tenure, size, quality, or location of homes built under the Programme. The Department does not, for example, publish data on the number of homes built, where they are built, what size they are or whether they are for ownership or …
Government response. The government will report annually to Parliament on the performance of the Programme and will confirm the information it will be able to share in its first report.
HM Treasury
1
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - The Affordable Ho…
Accepted
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (the Department) and Homes England about the Affordable Homes Programme.1
Government response. The government will work with Affordable Homes Programme delivery agencies to confirm their programme commitments in light of new economic challenges to delivery and will report to the Committee with updated targets for programme delivery.
HM Treasury
10
Recommendation
Twenty-Ninth Report - The Affordable Ho…
Accepted
The Department told us it tried to ‘strike a balance,’ between a centrally driven approach to need versus a local approach. The Department explained that outside London, Homes England identifies whether proposals for new homes are acceptable value for money, guided by local land supply and policy. Housing providers must …
Government response. The government agrees to consider additional ways to work with LAs to take greater account in the Programme of local need for affordable homes. The Department is exploring how to give greater control over the 2021 programme to the Greater …
HM Treasury
14
Recommendation
Twenty-Ninth Report - The Affordable Ho…
Accepted
The National Audit Office report found that the Programme could bring greater value to other parts of government, for example, in reducing the numbers of people in temporary accommodation. Local authority spend on homelessness has increased 50% in real-terms from 2015–16 to 2020–21.38 London Councils highlighted particular high levels of …
Government response. The government will quantify wider savings to areas such as adult social care and temporary accommodation before the next iteration of the Programme, collecting evidence through resident surveys.
HM Treasury
15
Recommendation
Twenty-Ninth Report - The Affordable Ho…
Accepted
The Department also commented that adult social care is another important example of the links and benefits that come from investing in housing, and that it is conducting research to quantify these savings.41 We asked the Department whether the 2021 programme was suitably aligned with wider government decisions on adult …
Government response. The government will collect evidence through resident surveys as part of the 2021 programme evaluation to understand the impacts of increasing affordable housing supply on areas such as adult social care and temporary accommodation, with first surveys in 2024 and …
HM Treasury
16
Recommendation
Twenty-Ninth Report - The Affordable Ho…
Accepted
We pressed the Department as to why it does not consider these wider savings when it allocates funding through the Programme. The Department told us it is working on improving its research base to do so but contended that the great majority of the financial benefit of the Programme would …
Government response. The government will quantify wider savings to areas such as adult social care and temporary accommodation before the next iteration of the Programme, collecting evidence through resident surveys.
HM Treasury
17
Recommendation
Twenty-Ninth Report - The Affordable Ho…
Accepted
In contrast, the Department does consider welfare savings and quantified these in the 2021 programme business case. The Department’s modelling showed that delivering new homes for social rent in London leads to significant savings in future housing benefit costs, compared to other regions. The Department forecast that over a 30-year …
Government response. The government agrees to quantify the wider savings it could make to areas such as adult social care and temporary accommodation, before the next iteration of the Programme. The evaluation for the 2021 programme will collect evidence through resident surveys …
HM Treasury
21
Recommendation
Twenty-Ninth Report - The Affordable Ho…
Accepted
The Department does not expect to deliver the intended benefits of the 2021 programme, and there are significant risks that could mean housing providers build fewer homes than forecast.53 We asked the Department about whether it would be revising its published targets, notably the 2021 programme target of “up to …
Government response. The government will share with Parliament a revised delivery plan for the 2021 programme. The government has asked Homes England and the Greater London Authority to work with their providers during Spring 2023 to confirm their programme commitments in light …
HM Treasury
23
Recommendation
Twenty-Ninth Report - The Affordable Ho…
Accepted
We commented that it would be good if the Department transparently published data on the tenure, area, and size of new homes.58 The NAO report used internal data from the Department, Homes England, and the Greater London Authority with regards homes completed and spend.59 Rentplus UK raised concerns over the …
Government response. The government will provide an annual report to Parliament on programme delivery each year, once it has received final delivery figures for the financial year, and at the same point each year thereafter. The government will confirm the information it …
HM Treasury