Osborne’s Housing Gamble

George Osborne is taking some big gambles on housing policy which may or may not pay off. One major gamble he’s considering at the moment is what to do with the Affordable Homes Programme. In 2010 this budget was cut, as part of the broader deficit reduction programme. To reduce the impact of the cut, Osborne changed what could count as “affordable”, allowing rents as high as 80% of the local private market to continue to fund some new development. Renters had to pay more, but so did taxpayers through the housing benefit bill, and crucially some homes for rent still got built.  Osborne is now considering going even further in his reforms. In his 2015 conference speech he said: “this autumn we’ll direct our housing budget towards new homes for sale.” This indicates another big change in affordable housing policy. Read more on the Shelter blog.