The Chartered Institute of Housing is calling on the government to review the impact of its welfare reforms when the chancellor announces his future spending plans later this month.
In its submission to government for the spending review, the institute says the government should ‘evaluate… and, if required, amend’ its controversial bedroom tax, and increase payments for households who are suffering increased hardship because of the reforms to £250 million for 2015/16.
The government’s current allocation for discretionary housing payments, which covers 2013/14, is £155 million, but early reports suggest this may prove inadequate with applications surging since the introduction of the bedroom tax social housing under-occupation penalty on 1 April.
The institute says the government should amend its policy if necessary to ‘avoid causing significant hardship to households who are unable to access alternative accommodation and cannot meet their additional housing costs’.
As revealed in Inside Housing last week, the CIH is also joining the National Housing Federation in calling for £2 billion a year to be spent on affordable housing, which it says could build 55,000 to 65,000 affordable and social rent, and shared ownership homes a year.
The institute wants a separate funding stream within this to support specialist and supported housing with rents at social levels.
The CIH submission also calls for revenue funding for supported housing to be maintained at £1.75 billion a year, for the preventing homelessness grant to be maintained at £160 million a year, and for disabled facilities grants and decent homes funding to continue.
On homeownership it calls for councils to be given the freedom to issue mortgages directly to people who are having difficulty obtaining them, and for support for mortgage interest payments to be continued at current levels.
The CIH repeats its demand for local authority borrowing caps to be lifted to allow councils to develop more homes. It argues lifting the caps imposed as part of the reform of the housing revenue account last year to £7 billion would allow 75,000 homes to be built over five years.
It calls for the current rent-setting framework for social landlords to be retained until 2025. The government said in the March Budget that it would set out a 10-year rent-setting policy in the spending review.
Grainia Long, chief executive of the CIH, said: ‘These measures will help put housing right where it should be – centre stage in our economic recovery by building 70 to 80,000 new affordable homes a year.
‘As a nation we have failed to build the number of homes we need for decades. Our spending round submission shows how affordable government investment can be a solution to our housing supply problem and boost our economy.’
Chancellor George Osborne will unveil his spending review on 26 June. Although it will only set departmental budgets for 2015/16, longer term plans are expected in some areas of capital spending.
Inside Housing is pushing for long-term subsidy for affordable housing through our Grant Britain Homes campaign. Find out more and sign our petition.
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