Affordable Housing: Grants – Parliamentary Written Answer

Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb: To ask Her Majesty's Government what conditions are placed on the disbursement of funds through affordable housing grants from Homes England.

Viscount Younger of Leckie: Registered providers are able to bid into the Programme for funding to build Rent to Buy and affordable rented homes; funding for Shared Ownership is also open to private providers. Registered providers can also bid for funding to deliver social rent homes in areas of high affordability pressure. The conditions guidance for the Affordable Homes Programme is published by the Department as part of its Capital Funding Guide. The funding guide can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/capital-funding-guide

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Lords/2020-01-08/HL215

Councils To Set To Benefit From Grant Funding To Tackle Rogue Landlords

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has confirmed that over £4 million will be shared by more than 100 councils following a bidding process to help tackle rogue landlords. Councils were invited to submit their bids for the Innovation and Enforcement Grant Fund by 1 December 2019 with an expectation that any funding has to be spent by 31 March 2020. This announcement follows on from the confirmation that the Government will proceed with abolishing Section 21 as announced in the Queen’s Speech as they seek to implement reforms with in the private rented sector. Read more on the NLA website.

https://landlords.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/councils-set-benefit-grant-funding-tackle-rogue-landlords

Affordable Housing: Construction – Parliamentary Written Answer

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much in grant funding will be allocated to the building of affordable housing between 2016 and 2021.

James Brokenshire: The Affordable Homes Programme is £9.1 billion, with £700 million currently allocated to 2021/22. The £700 million in 2021/22 includes the £300 million allocated to the Greater London Authority at Spring Statement 2018 and an additional £400 million to cover the money allocated to fund cladding remediation, which the Prime Minister announced on 16 May. The extension of the programme responds to calls from the sector for longer term certainty on grant funding.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2018-05-23/147332

Government 'Will Allow Borrowing Flexibility But Not Grant' For Fire Safety Work

Councils may be allowed increased borrowing freedoms and the power to switch funding from general funds to pay for fire safety work to high rises, but the government will not provide direct funding. This was the position revealed by Sajid Javid during a grilling by members of the CLG Committee. Mr Javid confirmed that 31 local authorities have asked for assistance paying for safety measures and that the government is in “detailed discussions” with six of those. He said the government was considering giving extra HRA borrowing flexibilities to the councils, and requests from “one or two” for a one-off transfer to be made from their general funds into their HRA, which is normally ringfenced. However, he said the government was not planning to provide grants for works. Read more on Inside Housing.

80% Of Government Housing Funding Is On Private Housing

Analysis of government figures by the CIH shows projected government investment through to 2020/21 will funnel £32bn into private programmes and £8bn into programmes for shared ownership and sub-market rent. The largest investment in private housing is the £12.5bn bill for the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme. Help to Buy ISAs, the Help to Buy guarantee scheme, and private rented sector guarantees cash make up the remainder of the funding. This investment is in the form of loans and guaranteed debt, rather than direct government spending. Its investment in affordable housing comprises mainly £4.3bn of grant under the Affordable Homes Programme. Read more on Inside Housing.

Cautious Welcome For Government Estates Scheme

Housing professionals have broadly welcomed a new government blueprint for overhauling run-down estates across England, coupled with a £32m funding boost. The flagship Estate Regeneration National Strategy makes available £32m in grant funding on top of £140m in loan finance already earmarked for the scheme.  The strategy, which focuses on community-led regeneration, has been developed by a panel co-chaired by Lord Heseltine and the housing and planning minister, Gavin Barwell. It began work in February this year and aims to help transform 100 run-down estates around England over the next 10 to 15 years. Read more on the CLG website.

Releasing Untapped Potential For More Housing

A new report from Savills says housing associations (HAs) have the financial capacity to more than double their output and bring forward 44,000 extra new homes by 2029 through additional asset-backed borrowing. Some form of subsidy is critical to deliver these homes across a range of tenures and to achieve affordability. In the absence of grant, HAs would need to secure land at zero or low value to deliver shared ownership or affordable rent housing. Almost half of the additional financial capacity to become a new class of home builder rests with large scale voluntary transfer (LSVT) associations, particularly larger ones. Download the report from the Savills website.

Right To Buy For Housing Association Tenants – Where Are We Now?

It’s less than a week since the National Housing Federation asked its members to vote on whether to voluntarily give their tenants the Right to Buy. Tenants, housing associations, councils and many commentators have been sharing their views. Here is a flavour of comments made by tenants on TPAS Facebook and Twitter: “The taxpayer is paying for this twice over, through the original grant to build and the disposal of state assets to provide a discount.”

“This means less properties being available. The end result being Housing Associations receiving less income and the housing waiting list getting longer.”

“The right to buy a home should be a fundamental right, but not the home you rent. That already belongs to someone else”

Read more on the TPAS website.

HCA Opens Bidding For Remaining £800m of Grant Funding

Housing associations can now bid for the remaining £800m grant available under the 2015/18 affordable homes programme. The cash forms the remainder of the HCA £1.7bn pot of funding, following the allocation of £886m in July. Under the HCA’s grant programme, which covers England but not London, providers are expected to submit bids for schemes they know can be delivered- rather than for indicative proposals. This means more of the money is held back for opportunities that arise over the life of the scheme than in previous years- a process known as continuous market engagement (CME). The £886m allocated in July will support 2,697 schemes providing 43,821 new affordable homes. Find full details on the HCA website.

Bedroom Tax Impact on Grant Allocations

Housing providers have warned that the government is ‘storing up future problems’ because more than three-quarters of its grant funding programme will be used for the development of one and two-bedroom homes. Of the 62,000 homes to be developed with the 2015-18 affordable housing grant allocation, 77% will be one and two-bedroom properties after the government requested that providers focus on smaller-sized properties. The allocation has been widely interpreted as a reaction to under-occupying tenants needing to downsize to avoid the bedroom tax. Housing providers told Inside Housing that civil servants from the CLG had contacted them to scrutinise why they had included bids for funding to build family-sized homes. Read more on Inside Housing.

HCA to Launch Investment Arm

The Homes and Communities Agency is setting up a new arm headed up by bankers to manage a £25 billion ‘recoverable’ investment portfolio. Under the plan the agency will take on three senior bankers on secondments as part of plans to recruit around 40 extra members of staff to create a new 80-employee ‘HCA Investments’ division. The move is a response to a shift in emphasis in government policy from grant funding to programmes under which the government expects to recover its investment through instruments such as equity loans and guarantees. The total value of these programmes will increase from around £2 billion last April to £25 billion. Read more on Inside Housing.

Landlords Reject HCA's Smaller Homes Requirement

Housing associations say they won’t bid for grant funding if they are required to build small homes. Scores of English landlords are threatening to reject £1.7 billion of government grant if they are forced to build large numbers of one and two-bedroom homes. The bidding criteria for the 2015/18 affordable homes programme, which covers all of England, apart from London, states that providers should ‘focus’ on providing smaller homes in areas where tenants are under-occupying. Read more on Inside Housing.

Affordable Homes Programme Launches

The Homes and Communities Agency has launched the prospectus inviting  housing associations, councils, developers and others to bid for a share of up to £1.7bn of grant funding for delivery of new affordable housing outside London. Homes delivered with this funding will contribute to the Government’s ambition to deliver up to 165,000 new affordable homes across the country between 2015-18. There will be two routes to bidding: either firm schemes only, or the mixed route comprised of firm schemes and indicative proposals. Any bidder will be able to bid for firm schemes only. Current HCA Investment Partners with a proven track record of good delivery will be able to access the mixed route, where this has been agreed with the HCA. This will maximise certainty of delivery, and delivery of firm schemes will be encouraged early on in the programme in order to help maintain an even supply of affordable homes. Read more on the HCA website.

Housing Minister Warns Sector over Future Funding

Mark Prisk has warned social housing providers that the government will challenge those failing to convert social rent tenancies to the new 'affordable rent' tenancies.  Prisk said that grant funding will be denied to those who do not comply with the new rent programme and that he was aware of a "huge variance" between otherwise similar housing associations when electing to re-let properties under the affordable rent programme. The model was extended for a further three years in the recent spending review, but Prisk warned the £3.3bn of grant funding would only be allocated to housing associations as part of a "something for something" deal in which providers would be expected to convert more stock to affordable rent levels, instead of cheaper social rent levels. Read more on the Guardian website.

Councils Join Forces After Funding Snub

A group of eight east midlands councils has established a task force to ensure the region is not snubbed for a second time in succession by the HCA.  The group, led by umbrella organisation East Midlands Councils, aims to make sure the region’s social landlords cash in on the £300 million of grant funding to build 15,000 affordable homes announced in this month’s stimulus package.  The group will respond to a report from think tank The Smith Institute which criticised the HCA for the distribution of funding under its £1.8 billion affordable homes programme. The report found that the east midlands received funding for just 4,183 homes or 5 per cent of the affordable homes programme in England. This is despite the area housing more than 10 per cent of the country’s population. Read more on Inside Housing.

Tenant Panels and Empowerment: Training and Support Programme

The CLG has issued a prospectus inviting applications from eligible organisations for grant funding to deliver a national programme for social tenants living in social housing that will:

    *encourage more tenant panels to challenge landlords, shape services and get involved in local decision making; and

    *empower tenants to engage with their landlord and take control of local services.

Download a copy of the prospectus from the CLG website.