Government still wedded to delivery by housing associations

The latest government consultation on the future of social housing has just been published. Entitled Local decisions: a fairer future for social housing it lays out significant changes in the forms of social tenancy that will be available, confirms the intention to focus on the development of intermediate rented housing, outlines the reform to the Housing Revenue Account...and more. The consultation is also described as covering "Empty Homes" (page 7). Section 3 does indeed deal exclusively with Empty Homes. It describes empty properties as "a blight on local communities and a waste of housing stock which we cannot afford.". It goes on to outline the key measures that the government is proposing to introduce to tackle the issue such as the New Homes Bonus. It also touches on the £100Million for empty homes. Unfortunately, our attempts to influence the government to secure this money for local authorities has so far failed as the document states that "...we intend to invest £100m through the HCA in supporting housing associations to refurbish over 3,000 empty properties and manage them at an affordable rent for up to 10 years. This is a significant increase in funding, enabling housing associations to build on their expertise in this area." This implies that the money is to be ring-fenced for Temporary Social Housing Grant, but we cannot be sure of this. There is no hint that new or modified grant schemes might be introduced. But we live in hope. Grant Shapps says that "For far too long in this country there has been a lazy consensus about the use of social housing,". But he is certainly taking the lazy option as far as the £100Million for empty homes is concerned if it is all to be reserved for housing associatoins whilst Private Sector Renewal budgets are slashed. Regrettably there are no Consultation Questions related to this section of the document. Nevertheless we will continue to make representations to the effect that the £100M would be most effective if invested through local authority schemes, which typically offer the best value for money, the most flexibility and are certainly the "localist" option. Local authorities can negotaite with RSLs or other providers to secure the best outcomes for the property and area concerned. .We suggest that local authority practitioners try and get this message embedded in their own authorities' responses to the consultation. It is relevant here that the HCA is being expected to make budget cuts of 50% and merge its current regions into five areas. It is difficult to know how this massive cut-back will affect its ability to process the many low-value grants that one would expect from a TSHG programme. The link to the consultation can be found here.