25 March 2005
Social landlords in the Southwest and East of England will be the main winners over the next two years after the government announced regional housing allocations totalling £5.5bn.
In the Southwest, the regional housing board has £362m to divide among councils and housing associations by 2007/08 – an increase of 48%. In the East of England, landlords will receive £431m – an increase of 44%.
Part of the £5.5bn, which amounts to a 14% increase on the current two-year period, will be spent on new homes and distributed through the Housing Corporation's approved development programme. For the first time, registered social landlords will compete for grants with other organisations, including private developers.
But first, England's nine regional housing boards must decide how much to allocate to new housing and how much for spending by local authorities and RSLs on existing homes.
Boards must submit regional housing strategies to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister by May, and the gross value of the Housing Corporation's ADP will not be announced until late summer or early autumn.
Neil Griffiths, research leader at the National Housing Federation, said it was too early to say exactly how well RSLs would fare. The allocation for the Northwest, he pointed out, had been effectively frozen at £250m.
Ministers said their priorities continued to be a reduction in non-decent homes and an increase in affordable housing. They pointed out that allocations in London and the Southeast were rising by only about 10%–15%, but that these regions already receive more than half the total pot. 'This investment is helping to create places where people want to live and work in all regions across the country,' said housing minister Keith Hill on March 22.
On the same day as it unveiled the regional allocations, the ODPM announced that housing market renewal pathfinders in northern England are to receive a further £65m.
Yorkshire and the Humber is to receive £24m while the Northeast and Northwest will get £23m and £18m respectively to spend on regeneration schemes designed to increase housing demand.
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