The Government has announced a £400million raid on New Homes Bonus in 2015-16 according to the Treasury announcement on infrastructure spending contained in Investing in Britain's Future. The money is being taken out of the direct control of local authorities The document states:
The Spending Round announces that £400 million from the New Homes Bonus will be pooled within Local Enterprise Partnership areas to support strategic housing and economic development priorities.
Strategic Economic Plans
The foregoing extract is is from Chapter 6 on housing: but Chapter 9 makes it clear that the money will be going into the Single Local Growth Funds of the 39 English LEPs
The SLGF will provide LEPs with the flexibility to tackle the barriers to growth in their areas and provide influence over the key levers of transport, skills and housing. An area’s allocation from the SLGF will be available to be spent on the priorities LEPs and their partners have determined in their strategic economic plans.[emphasis added].
So whether or not funding gets spent on housing at all would depend on what is in the economic plan. The top-slicing has been announced for 2015-16 only but it is clear that the intention would be to continue with it in future years assuming LEPs perform as expected.
For revenue-strapped local authorities facing front-line service cuts, this may not be welcome news, although presumably there is some potential to compensate by reducing the amount of capital funding contributed to the LEPs from other sources.
For those working in local authority empty homes initiatives this reduction in local authority revenue may be perceived as the latest potential threat to their existence. But there may be some significant opportunites to be found in the changing strategic landscape for a number of reasons.
Empty Homes Initiatives and LEPs
- Firstly, bringing empty homes back into use almost always involves some expenditure on refurbishment of the property in question. Much of that spending is local in nature as are any jobs created. And relatively small amounts of pump-priming can lever in significant amounts of private funding, as has been well-documented by Kent's No Use Empty programmes. So there are solid and immediate economic drivers for LEPs to support empty homes work.
- Secondly, the environmental and social benefits of reducing the numbers of empties are also compelling. Increasing the stock of available housing is likely to be a priority in most areas but the funding and levers for LEPs to achieve this will still be relatively limited. Ensuring there are effective empty homes initiatives is one of the cheapest options available.
- Thirdly, although what is proposed is a straight top-slice of NHB, it is reasonable to assume the distribution of the funding will reflect the NHB that would have otherwise gone to the local authorities in the LEP area. That presumably is what is meant by "pooled within Local Enterprise Partnership areas". That means LEPs will have a direct stake in the amount of NHB earned in their area and thus in their local empty homes initiatives.
- Fourthly, LEPs are quite remote from most residents. But empty homes work is always local in character. Eyesore empty homes are by defnition highly visible. Thus LEP-funded initiatives to bring empty homes back into use offer an opportunity to build grass-roots support for LEPs and greater awareness of what they can contribute to their local areas.