New £3bn Affordable Homes Guarantee Scheme Announced In Spring Statement

Chancellor Philip Hammond has used his Spring Statement to announce a new £3bn Affordable Homes Guarantee scheme. Hammond told the Commons the scheme would support delivery of around 30,000 affordable homes. And some £717m from the Housing Infrastructure Fund will unlock up to 37,000 new homes on sites in West London, Cheshire, Didcot, and Cambridge, Hammond said. Also announced were measures to help developers future-proof new build homes to meet low carbon heating and a Call for Evidence on an SME energy efficiency scheme. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/breaking-new-3bn-affordable-homes-guarantee-scheme/

Budget 2018: What Do The Housing Measures Mean?

More help for first-time buyers and plans to create more homes on the High Street have been announced in the Budget. Most first-time buyers of shared ownership properties will now no longer pay stamp duty, under the measures unveiled. Chancellor Philip Hammond said Britain's housing market needs to be fixed, adding it was key to boosting UK productivity and pushing up living standards. The UK is facing a shortage of housing. The number of homes on the market is at a 10-year low and fewer people are taking out mortgages. So what has the chancellor said he is going to do about it? Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46024789

Crisis Releases Homelessness Report

A new report from Crisis gives government no let-up on homelessness. Despite his matter-of-fact admission to the obvious on rough sleeping, Chancellor Philip Hammond’s budget didn’t pledge much to address the problem. So, Crisis has said what the Commons should have heard, focusing specifically on the difference five government departments could make in preventing homelessness: the Department for Work and Pensions, the Ministry of Justice, the Department of Health and Social Care, the Home Office and the Department for Education. Download the report from Crisis.

https://www.crisis.org.uk/media/239551/preventing_homelessness_its_everybodys_buisness_2018.pdf

‘Give Tenants Designs On New Social Housing’ Says LGA Chair

LGA chair Lord Porter says ‘self-build’ is the future for social housing, with future tenants having designs on the design of up to 100,000 new homes and building regulation the only criteria. Next week, the chancellor Philip Hammond is expected to confirm that from as soon as next month councils will no longer have to doff a borrowing cap to housebuilding. Porter wants to push for bolder – councils directly working with tenants on design rather than councils simply commissioning volume housebuilders. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/give-tenants-designs-on-new-social-housing/

Thousands More Homes Pledged By Councils Under May’s New Rules

Sixty local authority leaders have pledged an immediate drive to build thousands more council homes by exploiting new rules announced by Theresa May. Dozens of councils across the country, led by both Labour and the Tories, have signed an open letter vowing to use new powers to borrow more money to build a new generation of properties. It has led to hopes of the biggest council house-building programme since the 1970s. However, it leaves Philip Hammond with a major headache ahead of his budget later this month. The extra borrowing could add £1bn to the deficit and further constrain his room for manoeuvre, as he already needs to find money to fund the NHS. Read more on the Observer website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/oct/21/councils-pledge-to-exploit-end-to-borrowing-cap-to-build-homes

Treasury Weighs Up Tax Break For Landlords Who Sell To Generation Rent

The chancellor, Philip Hammond, is considering using this month’s budget to introduce a “good landlord” tax break rewarding investors who sell properties to sitting tenants amid a housing crisis that has left 40% of young adults unable to buy a home. The Treasury is weighing up a new Help to Buy proposal whereby landlords would not have to pay capital gains tax when selling up to tenants who had been living in a property for at least three years. The plan has been drawn up by the right-wing thinktank Onward, which suggests the £1.3bn-a-year cost of the policy could be covered by curtailing other tax perks enjoyed by buy-to-let investors. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/oct/08/treasury-weighs-up-tax-break-for-landlords-who-sell-to-generation-rent

Reverse Universal Credit Cuts, Iain Duncan Smith Tells Chancellor

The former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith has warned the chancellor that he risks undermining the whole purpose of welfare reform if he fails to reverse cuts to universal credit (UC) in his spring statement. Philip Hammond is under mounting pressure from across the party to use better than expected tax revenues to reverse cuts made after the 2015 election. Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows that 340,000 people could be taken out of poverty by reversing the cuts to work allowances. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/mar/13/reverse-universal-credit-cuts-iain-duncan-smith-tells-chancellor

Anti-Homelessness Taskforce Has Not Held A Single Meeting

A government taskforce set up last year to tackle soaring levels of homelessness has not held a single meeting, it has emerged. The Rough Sleeping and Homelessness Reduction Taskforce was announced by Philip Hammond in his Autumn Budget last November, following a spike in the number of people who are sleeping rough. The Chancellor said the Government was committed to halving rough sleeping by 2022 and eliminating it by 2027, and that the taskforce of government ministers “will develop a cross-government strategy to work towards this commitment”. The group is being supported by an advisory panel that brings together homelessness charity leaders and local government representatives. Read more on the Independent website.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/government-homelessness-rough-sleeping-tories-taskforce-not-held-meeting-john-healey-philip-hammond-a8220101.html

Chancellor's Plan To Solve Housing Crisis Will Fail

Chancellor Philip Hammond's plans to tackle the housing crisis will fail without further reforms, MPs say. Abolishing stamp duty on homes under £300,000 was the centre piece of Mr Hammond's November budget. The government says it has already helped more than 16,000 people get on the property ladder. But the Treasury select committee said the move is likely to push house prices by at least the amount the reduction in stamp duty is supposed to save. It said Mr Hammond would only meet his target of 300,000 new homes a year if he took more action to promote building such as lifting a borrowing cap on councils. Read more on the BBC website.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42768300

92% Of Councils Not Meeting Affordable Housing Needs

The study, by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), warned that 92% of councils are not meeting affordable housing need in their areas. It found that affordable housing represented the biggest delivery challenge – with two-thirds, or 67%, of authorities failing to meet overall housing demand in 2015/16. The report called on chancellor Philip Hammond to make further investment in affordable housing at the Budget, including through allowing councils to take on extra borrowing in order to build new homes. Researchers said that sub-market housing products such as affordable rent and shared ownership are becoming increasingly out of reach for low and middle-income earners in most areas. Download the report from the IPPR website.

Hammond Rebuffed Over Budget Plan For Green Belt Housing

Theresa May is resisting calls from Philip Hammond to free green belt land for housing as he seeks radical cost-free measures for the budget. The chancellor wants to use next month’s statement to continue to tackle Britain’s poor productivity, and the lack of housing in high-demand areas is regarded as a key factor. Mr Hammond has been arguing within the cabinet for months that some of the protected countryside should be reclassified as part of a housing package that could allow extra borrowing to fund house building.  Read more on The Times website.

Government Buying Into Affordable Homes

The Government has bought into affordable housing to win over young voters. Chancellor Philip Hammond asked a private meeting of Tory backbench 1922 committee for ideas to bridge the widening  gap between voting generations. Housing emerging as an obvious issue upon which ground could be gained where young voters were concerned as to their prospects. The government was reinforced by a visit from Lord Willetts, a former Tory cabinet minister who chairs the Resolution Foundation – a think-tank focused on improving living standards – to Downing Street and meeting with head of policy James Marshall. Read more on 24housing.

West Midlands 'Selected' As Right To Buy Pilot Region

The government is understood to have chosen the West Midlands as the area for its regional Right to Buy pilot. However, it is understood little detail was given in the early conversations about how the pilot would work in practice. The area had been strongly rumoured to be in line for the pilot since the Autumn Statement last year, when chancellor Philip Hammond announced a regional Right to Buy pilot. The government has budgeted £25m for the Right to Buy pilot in 2017/18, with £90m next year and £250m in total through to 2021, with more than 3,000 tenants expected to buy. Read more on Inside Housing.

The Government Is 'Wiping Out The Buy-To-Let Economy'

Philip Hammond’s failure to reverse George Osborne’s deeply unpopular tax reforms will have far-reaching implications for the buy-to-let industry, it has been predicted. Government plans to strip buy-to-let landlords of mortgage interest tax relief will have a “detrimental impact” on households up and down and the country, according to David Hannah, principal consultant, Cornerstone Tax. From next month, landlords will start to lose the right to tax deduct their mortgage interest costs at the rate they pay income tax - currently up to 45%. Instead, they will see this fall over the next three years and replaced with a 20% tax credit. Hannah has criticised the move, claiming it will result in rent increases for tenants across the UK. Read more on the Home website.

Autumn Statement 2016 Briefing

On Wednesday 24 November Chancellor Phillip Hammond set out Government spending plans. This briefing provides an overview of the main housing-related measures, along with initial comment. Download this first-rate briefing from the Housingnet website.

HCA Chair Reveals Equal Split Of Funding For Tenures

The government’s £4.7bn Affordable Homes Programme could equally fund affordable housing, Rent to Buy and homeownership products, the chair of the HCA has revealed. Sir Edward Lister said the Affordable Homes Programme will be “very much a third, a third, a third arrangement” including homeownership, Rent to Buy and “an element of affordable”. Chancellor Philip Hammond revealed in the Autumn Statement that the rules around the Affordable Homes Programme will be relaxed to fund affordable rented and Rent to Buy homes. However, housing minister Gavin Barwell appeared to contradict this. He was asked what proportion of the programme would fund affordable rented and social rented housing. He responded: “What we have done with the Affordable Homes Programme is to give complete flexibility, so I can’t give a specific answer because it will depend on the bids housing associations make from the programme.” Read more on Inside Housing.

Chancellor Unveils Extra £2.3bn For Housing Infrastructure

Chancellor Phillip Hammond has put extra infrastructure investment at the heart of his Autumn Statement announcement. Among the new spending pledges was £2.3bn for civil engineering infrastructure work like local roads to pave the way for 100,000 new homes. A further £1.4bn will be provided to deliver 40,000 new affordable homes. Treasury documents show the Housing Infrastructure Fund will total £60m in 2017/18 rising each year to £300m and £945m before hitting £1,425m in 2020/21. The money forms part of a £23bn National Productivity Investment Fund to be spent on innovation and infrastructure over the next five years. Read more on the Construction Enquirer website.

Don't Believe The Letting Agents: Banning Fees Is Good For Tenants

The government’s decision to ban letting fees to tenants is a victory for the country’s 11m renters, and common sense. It has also enabled the chancellor Philip Hammond to announce what is effectively a several-hundred-pound giveaway for “just about managing” households that, conveniently, doesn’t cost the government anything. One in three private renters move home each year, and upfront fees cost the typical two-adult household £400 when starting a tenancy. Tenants pick a property based on its rent and suitability: they have no say over which agent the landlord appoints to manage the tenancy. As a result agents have a captive market that they can charge whatever they like. This has resulted in fees for the same basic service ranging from £40 to nearly £800. Read more on the City Metric website.

Industry Body Urges Major Tax Breaks To Boost Build To Rent

The British Property Federation is urging Chancellor Phillip Hammond to bring in tax measures to help the purpose-built Build To Rent sector assist the government in meeting its housing targets.  BPF figures show that in the past year the number of BTR units in with planning permission, under construction or completed in the UK has surged by over 200 per cent to 67,000 units. The regions have seen an increase of almost 400 per cent, from 7,000 units in October 2015 to over 34,000 a year on. The BPF has stressed that although these figures are encouraging, the sector could be delivering far more homes. Read more on the Lettings Agent Today website.

Send The Build-To-Rent Sector 'Into Overdrive'

Government must boost the build-to-rent sector by exempting investors from a stamp-duty hike targeted at landlords and relaxing planning rules. That is the view of the British Property Federation (BPF), a trade association, in its submission to the Treasury ahead of Chancellor Philip Hammond's autumn statement. As of April 2016, purchases of additional properties are subject to a 3% levy on top of the basic stamp-duty rates, to cool buy-to-let demand and reduce competition in the market for first-time buyers. But the BPF said this "sent out a negative message to almost £50bn of investment capital that is interested in build-to-rent opportunities in the UK. There is a strong argument that exempting investors that contribute towards the delivery of new homes would have a positive impact on that delivery," said the BPF's submission. Read more on the IBT website.