Select committee: Built Environment Committee
Conclusion 63
1st Report - Meeting housing demand
Published 10 Jan 2022
Built Environment Committee Meeting the UK’s housing demand All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Social housing rents are below market prices and are designed to help those whose needs are not served by the market. Social housing is still provided by local authorities but private registered providers, which are primarily housing associations but can include for-profit organisations, are now the main source. Box 2: Types of social housing Homes for social rent: rent levels are typically set at around 50–60% of market rents and seek to provide long-term security of tenure. Homes for affordable rent : a form of social housing introduced in 2011 which is allocated in the same way as social rented homes but the rent level can be up to 80% of market rent. Shared ownership : a programme which enables home buyers to buy a share of a property, usually between 25% and 75%, and pay a subsidised rent on the remaining share.
From: Built Environment Committee, 1st Report - Meeting housing demand, 10 January 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 28 March 2022 (deadline 10 March 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government welcomes the Committee's report and says it is "taking action on a number of the issues identified", agreeing with some recommendations while disagreeing with others, including on home ownership schemes and the Apprenticeship Levy.
- It "disagrees with the report's assessment that homeownership schemes do not provide good value for money", citing independent evaluations and its own evaluation of Help to Buy.
- On older people's housing, it is launching a new taskforce "this year", chaired by the Minister for Housing, to look at better choice, quality and security of housing.
- It does "not intend to set out a proportion" of Affordable Homes Programme funding for social housing, though "around half" of the affordable homes are to be for social and affordable rent.
- On the Apprenticeship Levy it says it has "no plans to review" it. On planning fees it is "exploring options" to increase them, and on local plans it will make an announcement "in due course".