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 …
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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 target local authorities with the highest need for housing. Under strategic bidding, housing providers only state the region, not the local authority, in which they intend to build. Local authorities lack power to shape development in their local areas and have few powers to insist that housing providers build the right type of homes for local people. Recommendation: The Department should consider how it can work with local authorities to take greater account in the Programme of local need for affordable homes.
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees to consider additional ways to work with LAs. The government will seek to improve this for successor programmes.
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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 …
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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 rent. Furthermore, the Department does not routinely publish data on the Programme’s progress. The public, parliament and stakeholders understanding of the programme and its performance is hindered by the lack of meaningful data available in the public domain. The Department agreed to the notion of annual reporting and acknowledged that updating forecasts is useful and sensible. The Department could learn from High- Speed 2 where we called in 2020 for more transparency and open reporting from the Department of Transport, since when the Department for Transport has been providing six-monthly updates to Parliament which have been useful to all parties. Recommendation: The Department should report annually to Parliament on the performance of the Programme with detail on types, tenure, size, and quality of homes built by local authority area. The Affordable Homes Programme since 2015 7 1 Building new homes
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Government response AI summary
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.
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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 AI summary
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.
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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 …
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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 then build homes 13 Qq 63, 64 14 Written evidence submitted by G15 group, dated September 2022 15 Q 63 16 Qq 69, 72 17 C&AG’s Report, para 4.4 18 C&AG’s Report, para 21, Figure 13 19 Written evidence submitted by Shelter, dated September 2022 20 Qq 59–62 21 C&AG’s Report, para 4.3 22 Q 45 23 Q 52, 59, 60 24 Qq 45–46 10 The Affordable Homes Programme since 2015 within the timeframe of the Programme. The Department decides how much funding to allocate to London and the rest of England .25 For the 2021 Programme, the GLA will receive 35% of the Programme’s funding, down from a 50% split of funding for the 2016 programme. The National Audit Office found that the 2021 programme achieved a much higher benefit cost ratio in London compared to the rest of England.26 The Department commented that there are other policy considerations, aside from benefit cost ratios, that determine the split of funding between London and the rest of England.27 Homes for social rent
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Government response AI summary
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 Manchester Combined Authority and the …
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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 …
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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 homelessness and use of temporary accommodation in London.39 We asked the Department whether it has done a cost-benefit analysis of reducing the numbers of people in temporary accommodation. The Department told us it estimates that the 2021 programme will take 8,500 households out of temporary accommodation, but could not quantify the associated financial savings.40
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Government response AI summary
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.
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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 …
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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 social care. The Department told us that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is now much more involved in the Programme. It is considering how it can work more effectively with the DHSC, for example through DHSC’s Care and Support Specialised Housing Fund. The Department recognised there are challenges over aligning on-going funding for care support services, and that it needs to further its understanding over how to deliver supported homes in London.42 The developer, McCarthy Stone, welcomed the announcement of the older people’s housing taskforce in the Levelling Up White Paper and would like to see 30,000 new specialist homes a year.43
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Government response AI summary
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 repeating until 2029.
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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 …
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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 still accrue from land value uplift.44
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Government response AI summary
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.
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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 …
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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 and 60- year period respectively, 69% and 110% of the grant funding needed to deliver a home for social rent is repaid by forecast housing benefit savings.45 The Department noted that these savings are very long term, with the payback period measured in decades. The Department told us that it was an option to allocate more money to London, but this must be balanced with other policy considerations.46 38 C&AG’s Report, paras 22, 4.10 39 Written evidence submitted by London Councils, dated September 2022 40 Qq 40, 52 41 Q 53 42 Qq 82–84 43 Written evidence submitted by McCarthy Stone, dated September 2022 44 Q 81 45 C&AG’s Report, paras 22, 4.9 46 Qq 78–79 The Affordable Homes Programme since 2015 13 Net-zero standards
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Government response AI summary
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 to help understand many of …
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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 …
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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 180,000 should economic conditions allow” when in practice the Department was working to a forecast of 157,000. The Department explained that these were ambitions set out at the start of the Programme. We suggested that the Department could consider annual reporting to Parliament on progress. The Department told us it is content to update the Committee when it next produces a forecast. The Department agreed to the notion of annual reporting but will need to work on its precise form.54 In 2020 we reported on the High Speed 2 programme and made recommendations around the need for greater transparency and for regular reporting of progress to parliament. The Department for Transport accepted our recommendations and has since published very useful six-monthly update reports on progress, in the form of a written statement to Parliament.55 47 C&AG’s Report, para 23 48 Qq 54–55 49 Qq 55–56 50 C&AG’s Report, para 4.16 51 Q 57 52 Written evidence submitted by G15 group, dated September 2022 and written evidence submitted by Business LDN, dated September 2022 53 C&AG’s Report, paras 14,15 54 Qq 85–89 55 Public Accounts Committee, High Speed 2: Spring 2020 update, 3rd Report of Session 2019–21, HC 84, 17 May 2020; Treasury Minutes, Government responses to the Committee of Public Accounts, CP 270, July 2020. 14 The Affordable Homes Programme since 2015
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Government response AI summary
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 of new economic challenges to …
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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 …
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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 lack of information over how many shared owners buy their home outright, and the lack of official data on the incomes of those benefitting from shared ownership.60 Homes England said it is not aware of whether it tracks what percentage of a home shared owners purchase, but probably do so indirectly. Homes England acknowledged that it was too soon to know how shared ownership may be impacted by potential changes in the mortgage market.61 56 Q 87 57 C&AG’s Report, para 3.17 58 Q 91 59 C&AG’s Report, figures 16–19 60 Written evidence submitted by Rentplus, dated September 20221 61 Qq 91–95 The Affordable Homes Programme since 2015 15
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Government response AI summary
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 will be able to share …
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HM Treasury