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The Coalition Government has issued its “Programme for Government”, setting out its plans for the next five years. Below are the key points of the Coalition’s programme for housing. It should be noted that many of the proposals the parties set out in their manifestos, e.g. plans to increase mobility for social housing tenants, have not materialised in the programme, these are listed below. Details of the proposed £6 billion pounds cuts to non-front line services are to follow. The full document “The Coalition: our programme for government can be downloaded here
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Key Points Housing:
*We will phase out the ring-fencing of grants to local government and review the unfair Housing Revenue Account.
*We will end the ban on social tenants starting businesses in their own homes.
*We will promote shared ownership schemes and help social tenants and others to own or part-own their home.
• We will abolish Regional Spatial Strategies and return decision-making powers on housing & planning to local councils, including giving councils new powers to stop ‘garden grabbing’.
*We will require continuous improvements to the energy efficiency of new housing.
*We will create new trusts to make it simpler for communities to provide homes for local people.
*We will explore a range of measures to bring empty homes into use.
*We will provide incentives for local authorities to deliver sustainable development, including for new homes and businesses.
*We will promote ‘Home on the Farm’ schemes that encourage farmers to convert existing buildings into affordable housing.
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Key Points other issues:
*We will support the creation of Local Enterprise Partnerships to replace Regional Development Agencies. These may take the form of the existing RDAs in areas where they are popular.
*We will abolish the Government Office for London and consider the case for abolishing the remaining Government Offices.
*In the longer term, we will radically reform the planning system to give neighbourhoods far more ability to determine the shape of the places in which their inhabitants live, based on the principles set out in the Conservative Party publication Open_Source_Planning
*We will retain energy performance certificates while scrapping Home Information Packs (HIPs).
*We will freeze Council Tax in England for at least one year, and seek to freeze it for a further year, in partnership with local authorities. We will give residents the power to veto excessive council tax increases.
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Differences between the Conservative Party manifesto & the Programme for Government. In manifesto, not in Programme;
*Scrap house-building targets but incentivise building by matching local authorities’ council tax take for each new house for six years – The first part of this statement has been implemented in the abolition of the Regional Spatial Strategies, which set house building targets regionally but the second, italicised, part does not appear in the new document.
*Give social tenants with five years of good behaviour a 10% equity stake in their properties – This does not appear in the Programme for Government
*Make it easier for social housing tenants to own or part-own their home- This has become “We will promote shared ownership schemes and help social tenants and others to own or part-own their home.”
*Pilot a new ‘right to move’ scheme and introduce a nationwide social home swap programme so social tenants can transfer to another home or part of the country – This does not appear in the Programme for Government
*Respect the rights and tenures of social housing tenants - This is not mentioned in the Programme for Government
Other pledges:
*A future Conservative government will abolish the TSA - This is not mentioned
*The Conservative party plans to give the £3bn annual funding for social housing directly to councils and elected mayors – The Programme announces that there will be mayoral elections in the 12 largest cities but makes no mention of an amount of money they will be given.
*All social housing funding to be taken away from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and given directly to local authorities - This is not mentioned in the Programme for Government
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Differences between the Lib Dem Party manifesto & the Programme for Government. In manifesto, not in Programme;
*Build tens of thousands of affordable houses to rent - This is not mentioned
*Ensure council houses sold under Right to Buy are replaced – now not mentioned
*Allow local authorities to keep 100% of the capital receipts from Right to Buy sales – What will happen to the proceeds from RTB sales is not mentioned in the Programme for Government
*Bring 250,000 empty homes back into use by offering grants and loans to their owners – This has been watered down somewhat to ”We will explore a range of measures to bring empty homes back into use”
*Reform public sector borrowing requirements to free councils to borrow money against their assets in order to build a new generation of council homes, and allow them to keep all the revenue from these new homes - This is not mentioned in the Programme for Government
*Review the classification of local authority housing - This is not mentioned in the document.
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Finally, although it appeared in neither Party’s manifesto, there was an expectation following the election that social housing providers would be given a key role in reducing unemployment and worklessness in their communities; there is no specific mention of this in the Programme for Government.
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