Select committee: Built Environment Committee
Conclusion 64
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)
Four million households live in social rented housing in England, just under a fifth (17%) of all households. 117 In 2019/20, 10% (2.4 million) of all households rented from housing associations and 7% (1.6 million) from local authorities. 118 The proportion of households living in homes for social rent fell from 30% in 1980 to 17% in 2020. We heard that this fall in the number of homes for social rent is due to factors including Right to Buy sales and an inability to replace sold stock, conversions from social rent to affordable rent, and only a limited number of new homes being built for social rent. 119 The number of new social rent lettings made in 2019/20 was 25% lower than in 2012/13, while the number of new affordable rent lettings was 48% higher. 120 Building new social housing
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".