London is taking the lion’s share of all housing zones funding but not delivering proportionally more homes, according to a think tank set up last year by the coalition government.
A fairer funding deal should be given to market towns, country villages and cities outside of London to solve the housing crisis, said the Housing & Financial Institute report From the shores to the shires.
It said that although London had secured almost 100 times more in initial housing zone funding than the rest of England – money allocated to kick-start housing zones by reviving brownfield sites – it had only delivered twice the number of homes.
Of £606.3m, £600m went to London, and only £6.3m to the rest of England, according to Department for Communities and Local Government figures quoted in the report.
Where the £6.3m was allocated
The report also mentioned the “cultural myth” that the big housing developments were in London, Manchester, Birmingham and other major cities.
A total of 70% of new homes in 2015/16 were built in regional local council areas. There are also nearly 80,000 more households on housing waiting lists in the regions than in London and metropolitan areas, it said. “Not-spots” where no homes had been built in the last year were 90% in the regions.
The report said: “Councils up and down the country are putting in extra effort to deliver new homes. Such effort is bringing results – and so they deserve more resources. The government should put more of its housing money where the opportunity to deliver is being identified and can be met.”
The HFi is an independent not-for-profit advisory organisation created as a recommendation of the Elphicke-House Report 2015, announced by then chancellor George Osborne in the March 2015 budget and launched by housing minister Brandon Lewis in June 2015.
The institute’s five-point plan
- Allow councils to keep cash from house sales if they have a track record of housing delivery or a plan for new homes within four years
- Allow performing councils exemption from the high value assets levy
- Give extra “devo for districts” cash allocations and financial support to performing councils
- Pinpoint key areas of housing opportunity in councils which can be quickly translated into more homes, with extra infrastructure support, including for new water supply and other utility funding
- Fund capacity building with HFi’s Housing Business Ready programme to help councils in practical work needed to drive through housing delivery
