I have enjoyed working closely with Housing Minister Grant Shapps over the last three years, ever since his appointment as the Conservative shadow, and was one of the first to congratulate him on his appointment.
However, over the last few days, I have been alarmed by some of the pronouncements made by the government on housing and planning – which, in the worst case scenario, would have a catastrophic impact on the delivery of affordable housing.
The cuts to this year's housing budget, the announcement of a funding black hole for already earmarked developments, the ending of the regional housing targets, the crackdown on so-called ‘garden grabbing’ and the scrapping of the density directive have together removed most of the tools that facilitate the building of affordable housing.
The cuts to the national affordable housing programme budget for 2010/11 will immediately lead to 1,500 fewer affordable homes being built this year.
The decision to dismantle the current planning system by calling an end to regional housing targets, and without putting any transitional arrangements in place, has already led a number of local authorities to scrap their housing plans.
Moreover, the measures to crack down on garden grabbing will mean that many large sites – for instance where there are large redundant Edwardian houses – which have been treated as brownfield during recent years will now run the risk of being declared out of bounds.
To make matters worse, the government’s scrapping of the density directive will lead to many developers building large-bedroom executive homes instead of the homes we actually need.
Taken together, the cumulative effect of the various government pronouncements could dramatically drive down the number of new affordable homes the nation can deliver.
Access to a decent home is a key building block for a happy, healthy life, and unless we want to condemn millions of people on lower incomes to a lifetime of housing misery it is imperative the government reassesses some of the measures recently announced.
Housing associations are keen to be as innovative as possible and bring new ways of delivering homes to the table. However, they need the key planks to be in place, otherwise they simply cannot continue to build affordable housing in any real volume.
I hope that Grant will recognise the concerns I have raised and work with housing associations to safeguard the building of affordable housing.
David Orr is the chief executive of the National Housing Federation
