The Autumn Budget has united the leaders of organisations across the public and private sectors, who voiced their disappointment at the Chancellor’s failure to tackle problems in rented housing.
David Smith, Policy Director for the Residential Landlords Association, said:
“The Budget fails the country’s private tenants. While the Chancellor again outlined the Government’s desire to boost homeownership, he failed to address the needs of the millions of people who cannot or do not want to rent.
“With the demand for private rented housing rising while supply is shrinking, we needed pro-growth taxation measures to ensure that tenants have an adequate supply of housing to choose from.
“Despite being given innovative suggestions to protect tenants in their homes, encourage sale to tenants, and improve energy efficiency, we got a damp squib with little more than promises of further consultations. Eventually the Government will need to stop consulting on the housing crisis and take action.”
His frustration was echoed by leaders of the Chartered Institute of Housing and the National Housing Federation, who welcomed the new money for Universal Credit but warned that greater care was needed in implementing changes and in the roll-out of the new system. Kate Henderson, chief executive of the NHF, said:
“The Chancellor’s announcements on housing are not the wholesale changes needed to fix our broken housing market. We desperately need tens of thousands more social homes to be built every year, which is why we are disappointed the Government has missed a real opportunity to overhaul how land is sold.
“The current set up means last year landowners pocketed more than the global profits of Amazon, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola combined, raising the cost of land and making it almost impossible for organisations who want to buy land for social housing to afford it.”
Ms Henderson warned the new cash for UC must be used urgently and the Government must ensure claimants “receive the money they desperately need, when they need it, before even more people are moved on to the system”.
Terrie Alafat, Chief Executive of the CIH tried to see some positives in the extra money found for Universal Credit, but was critical of the ongoing freeze in the local housing allowance.
Not enough help
“There are some welcome elements in the budget announcements including £1.7bn to increase work allowances under Universal Credit and £1bn over five years in additional protection for existing claimants moving on to Universal Credit from other benefits. It is vital to get this right to make sure that people don’t live in fear of homelessness because they can’t afford to meet their housing costs.
“However, it was disappointing not to see any movement on the length of time people have to wait before receiving a Universal Credit payment which we know is causing great hardship to many people or any willingness to remove the local housing allowance freeze which we know is making it very hard for people to find or keep an affordable place to call home.”
A more critical tone was struck by her colleague Melanie Rees, the CIH’s head of policy, who said
“I have to admit it – I’m disappointed with what the Autumn Budget offered for housing and welfare.
“Despite the Prime Minister stating that, after Brexit, housing is her number one priority, you wouldn’t have picked that up from the Chancellor’s statement.”
She said her thoughts were on the recent revelation that at least 440 people have died while sleeping rough or in temporary accommodation since October 2017. She said the three things she had hoped to see were:
- A rebalancing of the £53bn housing budget, which is currently skewed towards private housing initiatives with affordable housing receiving just a 21 per cent share of the cake;
- Restoring the link between the consumer price index and Local Housing Allowance rates, recognising that the existing freeze is seriously affecting people’s ability to find and keep a decent place to call home, as our recent research showed; and
- Reversing the cuts to Universal Credit work allowances so that people can keep more of their earnings as their income increases – an important principle of this benefit when it was originally designed.
“The housing measures took up just two of the full Budget statement’s 106 pages. Some will make a difference. But overall the Autumn Budget lacked the ambitious vision we need to make sure that we have the right homes, in the right places, at prices that everyone can afford.”
By Patrick Mooney, editor