The year of the breakthrough is how Sir Hugh Cubitt, chairman of the Housing Corporation, describes 1986/87 in the corporation’s annual report(*). The breakthrough occurred, he says, in the autumn of 1986 when Treasury consent was given for the first rented housing scheme involving a combination of index-linked mortgage finance from a building society and public investment in the form of land provided by a local authority and housing association grant made available by the corporation.
Sir Hugh is hoping that this is the start of what will become a generally accepted method of funding housing association developments by combining finance from institutions in the private sector with an element of subsidy sufficient to allow rents to be set at levels which can be afforded by the tenants for whom the homes are intended.
For the year 1986/87, the Housing Corporation had £831m of government funding for homes through housing associations.
By the end of the year, these funds, plus £48m, were fully spent and the building and renovation of 22,574 more homes had been approved.
There is a steady increase in the need for rented homes among families on low incomes, single people and those with special needs, the corporation says.
These needs are found in rural areas as well as inner cities and they are rising much faster than provision. Over 100,000 families became homeless in 1986 — almost double the number in 1978.
(*) Annual Report of the Housing Corporation 1986/87. Housing Corporation, 149 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0BN.
