Select committee: Built Environment Committee
Conclusion 72
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)
The Government’s Affordable Homes Programme 2021–26 is an initiative to boost the construction of new affordable homes in England. Homes England will distribute £7.5 billion of the funding and the Government will negotiate with the Greater London Authority on the use of an additional £4 billion for London. The Government’s goal is to see 130,000 new affordable properties built outside London by 2026, with more built in London under the programme. 50% of the funding for the Affordable Homes Programme will be allocated to homeownership products, predominantly shared ownership, with an aim of building 57,000 homes for affordable ownership. The Government expects that the programme will also deliver around 30,000 new homes for social rent. 136 The Government has not, however, set targets for the delivery of homes by tenure type. 137 Research by the Chartered Institute of Housing has found that, of the £53 billion housing budget from 2019/20 to 2023/24, over three-quarters will be directed to private housing. That compares with £18 billion on affordable housing, where the 2021–26 Affordable Homes Programme is one of the most expensive policies. 138
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".