ROOF Blog

According to the Tenant Services Authority, housing associations are well placed to tackle long-term shortage in affordable housing. The TSA said that while not immune from the current economic downturn, the housing association sector continued to enjoy strong access to finance, with £5 billion of the £5.3 billion needed for the next 12 months already in place.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has announced he has already identified the London boroughs that will deliver three-quarters of his affordable housing target. He has reached agreement with 14 London boroughs to deliver more than 16,750 homes, with the remaining 19 boroughs identifying a further 20,500 properties. Mr Johnson had expressed his desire to remove his predecessor’s rigid housing targets in favour of individual agreements with the boroughs.

Only six of London’s 33 councils have accepted the affordable housing target set out by mayor Boris Johnson, London Councils says. Mr Johnson sent every council a new target for the delivery of affordable homes by 2011, overturning his predecessor’s goal of 50 per cent. Six councils have so far accepted the target, but ten came back with a lower figure, and a further 10 have not specified a figure but have asked to negotiate further.

The number of homes being built in Britain has plummeted to its lowest level since the early 1920s as falling house prices exacerbated the credit crisis in the construction industry. A report out today reveals there have been just 135,000 housing starts this year, compared with 203,500 in 2007, and with many projects dating from before the worst of the financial crisis hit, there are fears that house building will grind to a complete standstill. The report argues the government must speed up its own programme for social and affordable housing as it is ‘clear the private sector is not going to be able to deliver these homes directly or through section 106 agreements’.

London’s most run down housing estates are set to receive more than £100 million of funding. Around £77 million in funding has been promised to kick start a programme of estate and area regeneration that’s currently ‘stalled’ by the credit crisis, while a further £55 million will be invested to reduce homelessness, provide larger family homes and to maintain and improve social rented homes. The funding is part of the London mayor’s housing strategy but comes from the Homes and Communities Agency’s affordable housing budget.

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) whose aim is to take on the delivery of affordable homes and regenerating communities, and Tenants Services Authority (TSA), planned to safeguard standards for eight million social housing tenants, have been officially launched today. Top of the agenda for the two agencies is taking forward the government’s plans to respond to the current economic difficulties - including the way land is purchased, how investment is obtained and looking at ways unsold stock is converted into social housing.

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) will do everything it can to change the way that housing is supplied and would encourage the development of housing schemes that mixed affordable rented housing with homes at intermediate rents, as it plans to buy land from house builders in a bid to build new developments and boost the stagnant housing market. The agency plans to make land available for development, unlock surplus supplies of public sector land and target the acquisition of private sector land banks.

The National Housing Federation (NHF) has welcomed the government’s pre-budget report that money for social houses will be brought forward, but called for the funding rules to be changed immediately. The NHF said that unless money is used to pay builders of new social homes higher grant rates, the supply of new affordable housing could dry up next year. HAs currently pay around 60 per cent of the costs of building new social homes through raising cash from private lenders and selling homes on the private market, with government grants covering the remaining 40 per cent. However, the credit crunch has affected badly the ability of the associations to sell on the open market, and the money that the government is bringing forward must be used to pay for increased grants.

Housing associations have warned that without urgent government intervention there will be a ‘catastrophic’ collapse in the provision of new social housing. The 1,900 social landlords have urged ministers to change the way they are funded in order to prevent the supply of new, affordable housing drying up completely. They particularly want the limit on how much central funding can be used for development schemes relaxed, as it currently only allows the Housing Corporation to provide only 40 per cent of the cost, with the balance coming from borrowing or sales of private housing.