Former housing minister Mark Prisk has called for the current model for social housing finance to be replaced.
Speaking at the National Housing Federation Finance Conference in Liverpool this week, Prisk highlighted three challenges facing the sector that he said necessitate a new approach.
“Housing associations face a triple whammy – building more homes, making existing homes safe, and ensuring housing achieves net zero carbon emissions over the next few years,” Prisk said. “Together, these challenges cannot be met by the current financial framework.”
Prisk told the finance directors of housing associations that the National Housing Federation was “right to suggest that, when the existing arrangements conclude in 2025-26, there should be a realignment of the whole system, encompassing revenue and capital across the sector”.
He added: “There is an opportunity to turn the current situation into a positive. Government has said that it needs to change how funding is provided, and in housing that should mean creating a new model of finance which sets out a decade-long programme, providing a predictable framework of grant, debt and revenue and which is free from short-term tinkering.”
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