It’s as much about culture as about resources
A leading local government group representing council building, construction and housing services has made a plea for major investment for councils to contribute to the housing stock in the Budget.
Paul O’Brien Chief Executive of APSE said “the Chancellor needs to provide a major investment in council’s capacity to directly provide council homes. This will produce obvious benefits in these tough times to people on waiting lists, the construction industry and local communities. The Chancellor has already stated that he wants to tackle youth unemployment, well what a great opportunity exists to create real meaningful opportunities for young people by building council housing and creating not only employment but apprenticeships.”
He added “Recent thinking has demoted the role of councils as builders of new homes to virtually zero – but we know councils have a role and a change in culture, prompted by the HCA, which promotes councils as new builders and encourages councils to see house building as an intrinsic part of their place shaping role is just as vital as the resources to build”.
As well as significant resources and a shift in the approach to councils as providers of homes he called for a swift conclusion to the national HRA review. “In order to create the circumstances to allow any major investment in housing to flood through the pipeline and be implemented sustainably on the ground in local communities, Government must bring the national HRA review to a rapid conclusion”.
APSE members are calling for the following as fundamental elements of a new way forward for housing – hopefully starting with announcements in today’s Budget:-
- Secure receipts from Right to Buy sales for investment in new homes
- Enable borrowing against future rental income to take place outside of the public sector borrowing regime, within a robust fiscal framework, in line with other European countries
- Apply a broader scope, less bureaucracy and greater freedoms to current proposals for changes to revenue and capital rules
- Provide pump-priming resources from the Homes and Communities Agency
- Provide a level playing field with other social landlords in terms of access to Social Housing Grant
- Reform the Housing Revenue Account subsidy system, which is currently under review, to enable council building to take place
- Allow historic debts – which have been repaid several times over – to be kept separate from new debts incurred to build new homes
- Enable councils to own and manage developments directly
Date: 22/04/09
For further information or to arrange an interview please contact Phil Brennan on pbrennan@apse.org.uk or 0161 772 1810
NOTES FOR EDITORS
- The Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) works with over 300 members from councils across the UK who are providing front-line services including housing and has lobbied for local authorities to be able to fulfil their potential as house-builders.
- APSE has long lobbied for councils to be given extra powers and resources to help meet the demand from the growing number of people on waiting lists.
