affordable housing

2% of councils say new development is meeting demand for affordable homes

2% of councils in England say that new development in their area meets policy requirements for affordable housing, according to a report by the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA).

The research, which was taken from a survey of almost 90 councils, highlights the lack of resources available to local authorities trying to meet demand for affordable homes, with 70% of respondents saying that they are forced to rely ‘substantially’ on developer contributions to secure even this amount.

Councils and charities have long called for government to lift the HRA borrowing cap, which would give local authorities greater freedom to meet housing demand in their areas. The chancellor, Phillip Hammond, last year announced an additional £2bn of funding to help councils fund their own affordable housing projects and a lifting of the HRA borrowing cap, but this has been criticised for being available only in ‘high-value’ areas and for being inaccessible for at least another year.

Latest figures illustrate desperate need for new genuinely affordable homes

Terrie Alafat, chief executive of CIH, says new figures from the Office for National Statistics demonstrate the desperate need for new genuinely affordable housing.

Responding to the publication of Housing affordability in England and Wales by the Office for National Statistics, which demonstrates how unaffordable house purchasing has become, Terrie Alafat, chief executive of CIH said “The statistics released by the Office for National Statistics today make for bleak reading.

Are commitments to affordable housing relaxing?

A senior official at Westminster city council, a Conservative-led borough, has described the government’s new vacant building credit as insane and estimated it could lose as much as £1bn in housing payments, deepening the accommodation crisis afflicting the poorest people.

On 28th November 2014 the government announced the introduction of the ‘vacant building credit.’ This will mean that when a vacant building is brought back into any lawful use, or if it is demolished and replaced by a new building the developer will be offered a financial credit by the local planning authority and deducted from the overall affordable housing contribution calculation.