Select committee: Built Environment Committee
Conclusion 87
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)
Barriers to older people ‘down-sizing’ or ‘right-sizing’ can include: emotional bonds; fear of change; the cost of Stamp Duty Land Tax which increases with property price and so with size; reluctance to lose a principal financial asset; and a lack of choice in appropriate accommodation to move to. 158 We also heard that some housing schemes for the elderly are based on unfair terms and can result in additional costs. The Nationwide Foundation wrote that most lower-income older households “own their own homes, but they experience problems of non-decent housing as they do not have surplus income to spend on costly repairs and adaptations. This means that their homes do not meet their changing, and often deteriorating, health and mobility needs.” 159 Government response
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".