Priority treatment

OUTPUT OF AFFORDABLE HOMES this year will still be lower than the number Labour achieved in its first year in office, housing minister Yvetter Cooper confirmed in a parliamentary written answer yesterday.

The total in 2007/08 is forecast to be 47,263 compared to 47,269 in 1997/98. Output in 1996/97, the last year of John Major’s Conservative government, was 56,506. The totals include the Housing Corporations affordable housing programme, local authority social housing grant, the starter home initiative and local authority programmes.

Looking to the future, Cooper said:

‘The number of homes to be provided from 2008-09 will be the subject of the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 in which the provision of social rented homes will be a priority.’

However, it will have to be a big priority if output is to reach the level Labour inherited. The balance of the programme has changed radically in the last decade. In 1997/98 low-cost home ownership made up 15% of it (7,152 homes) but in 2007/08 that proportion will be 41% (19,263).

That means output of social rented homes will need to increase by 43% in 2008/09 to match the 40,000 achieved in 1997/98.

These are the figures from the written answer:

Go here for a breakdown of the low-cost home ownership programme (scroll down to the answer on house sales).