Government projections show there will be more than 250,000 new households every year over the decade to 2020, the result of growth in the number of single person households, increasing life expectancy and net migration. Building 110,000 new homes in 2009 clearly falls far short of this.
Welfare systems need to address two different types of situation faced by working age households. They need to provide short-to-medium term support for living costs in response to labour market fluctuations and frictional unemployment; and longer term support for those who are without a market income for extended periods (in practice many households are located on a continuum between these two poles).
The Comprehensive Spending Review, followed up by a letter from the Minister for Housing to local authorities, together herald the near collapse of affordable housing policy in the UK. For the most expensive parts of the country like London, they could herald the slow death of affordable housing altogether.
To better understand housing, ministers should be obliged to live for part of the year in new build homes that they have forced on the rest of the country.
In a speech today to the Labour Party conference, John Healey set out a detailed critique of the Coalition’s ‘New Homes Bonus’ scheme. He argued it will “blow out of the water” George Osbourne’s promise of a council tax freeze in many areas.
Labour leadership candidate Ed Balls will call for an additional £6 billion to be invested to build 100,000 more affordable homes, arguing that the government should use half of the £12bn windfall to the public finances in recent months to fund the rapid expansion in house building.
Under the Coalition’s new Home Bonus Scheme it has been found that London and the North West would lose £125m and £65m respectively, whilst the South East would gain £108m and the Eastern region £71m.
The government’s ‘New Homes Bonus’ scheme, which will match the council tax raised on each new house for six years, was slammed by shadow housing minister John Healey for being an expensive con, with the money coming mostly from existing local authority support grants – as revealed in a pre-election Tory green paper.
The BBC’s Chief Political Correspondent, Laura Kuenssberg, yesterday tweeted remarks made by David Cameron about the need for more discussion within the coalition before decisions are made. Simon Hughes’ intervention on council tenancies appears to indicate that the Prime Ministertest
David Miliband’s mansion tax has been attacked by the Daily Mail. But a £1 million tax, as proposed last year by Vince Cable, enjoyed significant public support.
