Eric Pickles letter to local authorities about Comprehensive Spending Review October 2010
October 21, 2010
This is the letter that contains the commitment to give £4.5billion for affordable housing over the next 4 years including £100Million for empty homes. There is no indication of how the £100Million will be distributed eg whether part of the existing National Affrodable Housing Programme / HCA grant regimes - which would be very restrictive - or whether the money might also be accessible for use through local authority alternatives that might offer better value for money. The fact that it is tied to affordable housing is already a restriction (eg compare with Kent loan scheme).
The good news is that the government has not specifically tied itself to distribution via the HCA in this letter, though perhaps there is already something behind the scenes that does tie the funding.
One bizarre piece of information is that "Local Authority Social Housing Grant", which apparently has a baseline figure of £212Million this year, will reduce to £65Million in 2011-12 and zero in the following years. But LASHG was abolished in 2003 and merged into the main Housing Corporation programme as Transitional LASHG. It is long gone. SHG for new council house building is normally called LANB not LASHG. So this "LASHG" may be Private Sector Renewal money, which is not otherwise mentioned in the table of capital grant. If it does mean PSR grant, this means no more private sector renewal funding from central government except for DFGs.
The government needs to provide further clarification on this budget line explaining exactly what it means by LASHG..
