District Councils 'To Lose £75m' With New Homes Bonus Reforms

The planned introduction of a housing growth baseline for the New Homes Bonus has been slammed by councils that believe they could lose £75m. The changes to the payments, which give financial rewards to councils for new housing developments, were proposed by ministers in December and include the introduction of a 0.4% housing growth “baseline”, below which no bonus is awarded. The network, which represents all 201 English district councils, estimates that alongside the impact of the New Homes Bonus loss, districts’ spending power is to reduce by 5.2% between 2016/17 and 2017/18, which compares with the average reduction of 1.1% across wider local government. Read more on Inside Housing.

Labour to Build 125,000 Homes with Help to Buy ISA

Labour has unveiled plans to build 125,000 new homes over the next five years using £5bn raised from a new ISA for first-time buyers announced in last month’s budget. Income from the ISA would be channelled into a Future Homes Investment Fund, which will form a key part of Labour’s plan to raise construction levels to 200,000 a year by 2020. This will be used to pump prime investment in Housing Growth Areas – new sites where local first time buyers will get priority  –  to unlock hundreds of thousands of homes. Read more on the Construction Enquirer website.

Labour Plans for Housebuilding

The Labour party has released a report based on a commission led by Sir Michael Lyons into the housing and planning policies needed to reach the 200,000 homes-a-year target. The Lyons housing review states that under a Labour government:

·         Up to half of new homes will be reserved for sale to local people.

·         Councils will restrict the number of homes sold for buy-to-let.

·         Local authorities will be able to designate housing growth areas.

·         The planning inspectorate will have increased powers to force councils to develop a housing plan.

·         Local authorities will not be able to borrow money to build, but housing will be a priority of the government’s capital spend.

·         Councils that have reached the HRA cap will be able to borrow from other councils that haven’t.

·         Groups of local authorities could form new Homes Corporations with strong planning powers.

·         There will be measures to underwrite loans to help small builders.

Download the full report from the yourbritain website.