Infrastructure Revolution To Unlock Thousands Of New Homes

The Chancellor has announced more than £250 million funding for vital infrastructure that will unlock over 20,000 homes nationwide. This investment, from the Housing Infrastructure Fund, will pay for roads, schools, public transport and utilities in seven places across the Midlands, the East of England and South East. This money will ensure new homes can be built in areas of high demand where people want to live, connecting businesses with their workforce – boosting jobs, growth and living standards. Read more on the GovUK website.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/infrastructure-revolution-to-unlock-thousands-of-new-homes

Chancellor Hands Out £600m To Unlock 50,000 Homes

The government has announced that it will give £600m in funding to help deliver infrastructure projects that will unlock an estimated 50,000 homes. Chancellor Sajid Javid has revealed that the money would be given to five new infrastructure projects across the country that would open up sites for housing development. The money will come from the Housing Infrastructure Fund, the £5.5bn fund that was launched by Mr Javid in 2017 when he was housing secretary, and is aimed at giving money to local authorities that have plans to increase housing supply but have sites restricted by lack of infrastructure, or land in need of remediation work. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/chancellor-hands-out-600m-to-unlock-50000-homes-62851?utm_source=Ocean%20Media%20Group&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=10813953_IH-DAILY-19-8-2019-GR&dm_i=1HH2,6FS3L,8CKJV9,PINP5,1

Homes England Launches Phase Two Of Community Housing Fund

Phase Two of the Community Housing Fund is launched by Homes England making £163m available for affordable homes across England. The fund is for community-led groups to drive forward ambitions for delivering new affordable housing schemes. Phase One of the fund was launched in July, supporting applications for capacity building, pre-development revenue funding and capital funding for local infrastructure projects. Phase Two bidding is now open for capital grants to fund the costs of acquiring land and building community-led housing schemes. The fund aims to give local people a leading and lasting role in delivering local affordable housing. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/homes-england-launches-phase-two-of-community-housing-fund/

Guidance For Housing And NSIPs

The government has published guidance confirming the details of measures that will see major infrastructure projects that include up to 500 homes considered as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP). This follows regulations about such schemes being laid before Parliament. The guidance covers changes to the Planning Act 2008 made by section 160 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016, which received Royal Assent in May last year. The guidance states that the government wants to ensure that the flexibility being provided to allow an element of housing to be consented under the 2008 Act “does not undermine the local planning process and the wider responsibilities for local authorities to plan for housing needs in their area”. Read more on the Planning Portal.

UK Urged To Relax Green Belt Restrictions To Tackle Housing Crisis

Britain should relax planning restrictions in green belt areas to help deal with its housing crisis, an international economic think tank has recommended. Shortage of housing was one of a number of factors identified by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as holding back UK growth, alongside poor skills and a lack of investment in infrastructure and research. Among its other recommendations were more toll roads, an expansion in vocational education and lifelong learning and better provision of social housing. Read more on the Belfast Telegraph website.

Housing Gets £4bn Boost To Increase Number Of New Homes

The chancellor committed almost £4bn to housing in his autumn statement, in a move he said represented a step-change in the government’s ambition to increase the supply of homes for sale and rent. The money, which the Treasury said was new cash, will be spent through two funds: one providing money for infrastructure projects to make sites viable for building, the other providing money for affordable homes. Measures to tackle the housing crisis included:

·         A £2.3bn housing infrastructure fund for local authorities to help deliver up to 100,000 homes

·         An extra £1.4bn for local authorities and housing associations to provide affordable housing to rent or buy

·         The roll-out of right-to-buy to 3,000 more housing association tenants

Read more on the Guardian website.

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.

Poll Shows Britons Support Action On Infrastructure

Ahead of the Autumn Statement, Ipsos MORI launch a new global Infrastructure study that finds the majority of the public think that Britain is not currently doing enough to meet the country’s infrastructure needs.  Some 60% of Britons agree that we are not doing enough as a country to meet our infrastructure needs and 76% are of the view that investment in infrastructure is vital to future economic growth.

·         Majority of Britons think we are not doing enough to meet infrastructure needs and 44% would back Government borrowing to meet those needs

·         Of all G8 countries, new housing supply rated worst in Britain

·         New housing supply is among public’s top priorities in Britain, along with rail and flood defences

Read more on the Ipsos Mori website.

Government Reveals Criteria For £3bn Home Building Fund

The government has published details of eligibility criteria for its £3bn Home Building Fund, which will be administered by the Homes and Communities Agency and will provide development and infrastructure loan funding for community-led housing projects, serviced plots for custom and self-builders, offsite manufacturing, new entrants to the market and groups of small firms working together to deliver larger sites. The fund will provide £1bn of short-term loan funding for small builders, custom builders and ‘innovators’, to deliver 25,000 homes by 2020. It will also provide £2bn of long-term funding for infrastructure, to support 200,000 homes over the longer term. Housing associations will be able to bid for loans from the fund. Read more on the GovUK website.

Councils Urge Clark To Resolve Housing Bill Problems

Council leaders have warned the communities secretary that the flagship housing bill could result in developments without schools and hospitals unless changes are made. A cross-party group of council leaders warned Greg Clark that there are “unintended consequences for local authorities and inconsistencies” that will result from the housing and planning bill. The delegation, led by the Local Government Association’s chairman Lord Gary Porter, said they could not fund the creation of the new schools, hospitals and roads needed to meet the government’s demand for new homes. The main concerns for councils are contained in a briefing paper that highlighted the exemptions for developers from housing and infrastructure contributions as a key issue. Read more on 24dash.

Osborne: 'Building Doesn't Come Easy’

George Osborne has used his party conference speech to reaffirm the Conservative policy toward housing. He said to supporters in Manchester: “Building doesn’t come easy and especially when it comes to new homes and infrastructure that the country needs. We are going to get many more homes built for families to buy, we’re sweeping away planning rules on brownfield sites, this autumn we will direct our housing budget towards new homes for sale. We will give housing association tenants the right to buy. We’ve had enough of people who own their own home lecturing others about why they can’t own their own one too.” Read more on 24dash.

UK Housing Crisis Will Not Be Solved Without All Solutions on the Table

The housing crisis in high-demand UK cities will only be solved for the long-term through a multi-pronged approach to freeing up land supply – including increasing the density of existing communities, and encouraging cities to work more collaboratively with their neighbouring authorities, a new Centre for Cities report has argued. Critically, it also highlights the importance for land both within and outside of cities to be re-evaluated on its merits, including certain green belt sites connected to local amenities and infrastructure – an essential component of tackling the crisis which has largely been designated ‘off limits’ in public debate ahead of the 2015 Election. Download the report from the Centre for Cities website.

Invest in Housing like Transport and Energy Infrastructure

Problems with housing finance could be improved if housing investment was treated more like other key economic infrastructure such as transport, energy and skills, a report by IPPR North has said. It argues that there is greater justification for using public funds to invest in housing in areas of ‘marginal viability’ to support wider economic benefit and recommends raising the HRA borrowing cap and more use of housing bonds and local authority pensions funds to support housing investment. Download the report from the IPPR website.

Universal Credit – Parliamentary Written Answer

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the scalability for national roll-out of the initial IT system being used to support the delivery of universal credit in the current pathfinders. 

Mr Hoban: Performance testing undertaken as part of the implementation of Pathfinder has confirmed that the existing universal credit infrastructure can support the progressive national roll-out announced to Parliament on 10 July 2013. We will set out more details of our development plan in the autumn.

UK Housing Market 'Will Never Meet Need'

The nature of the UK housing market means it is unlikely to ever produce enough homes to meet demand, according to a report commissioned by homelessness charity Shelter.  The report recognises the importance of housing in the economy and that it should be a ‘central element’ of any investment in infrastructure in the UK.  But it notes the fixed supply of land and planning requirements leads to long lead times of development, making house building a ‘risky industry’.  The report suggests planning and building regulations lead house builders to focus more on land management and action to improve their financial position rather than innovation and production. This is likely to have been exacerbated by the recession, it says. It concludes planning reforms may improve the supply of housing but can ‘only ever limit rather than remove the costs and constraints imposed on the availability of land’.  Download a copy of the report from the Shelter website.

Disappointment as Housing Left Out Of Government Scheme

The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) has expressed disappointment that investment in housing has been left out of the list of projects in the Government’s new guarantees scheme for major UK infrastructure projects. Under the scheme, the Government is offering to guarantee up to £40bn of private investment for “nationally significant” large infrastructure projects such as transport and energy.  Given that one of the other criteria for applications is that projects must be ready to start within 12 months, the CIH believes that not including housing could be considered "a missed opportunity". Read more on 24dash.

Councils Call For More Powers to Tackle Housing Crisis

A three point-action plan for tackling the worst housing shortage in a generation has been launched by councils in England and Wales. In a letter to Grant Shapps, the Local Government Association (LGA) has said that councils are "desperate to do more" to tackle the housing crisis but that Whitehall first needs to remove some of the unnecessary restrictions holding them back. The LGA, which represents more than 350 councils in England and Wales, has identified three key steps government needs to take to allow councils to tackle the housing crisis head on. These include:
*Helping overcome public opposition by giving councils the power to secure and invest sufficient money in infrastructure to support new communities.    *Giving councils more financial freedom.
  *Speeding up the process of bringing empty homes back into use.
Read more on the LGA website.

LGA ‘Housing the Nation' Campaign

Ensuring that new housing development comes with roads, schools and parks is vital to tackling the housing crisis and overcoming public opposition, local government leaders have said.  A survey of frontline councillors carried out by the Local Government Association (LGA) reveals that public opposition is the single biggest barrier to the building of new homes. However, development which comes with appropriate infrastructure is nearly four times more likely to be supported by the public, according to councillors.  The LGA has launched a ‘Housing the Nation' campaign, calling on Government to remove some of the restrictions hampering local authority efforts to tackle the nation's housing crisis.  It is warning that councils' efforts to ensure that all new developments come with the appropriate infrastructure like roads, schools and parks risk being undermined by Government proposals to allow developers to force councils to reopen Section 106 agreements previously agreed with developers.   According to Government figures only 106,050 new homes were built in 2010/11 compared to 160,030 in 1990/91. Approximately 250,000 are required each year to meet demand.  Read more on the LGA website.