By Neil Merrick
29 October 2009
Public spending restrictions are likely to increase the amount of social housing that still fails the decent homes standard at the end of next year, MPs were told this week.
The government has already admitted that around 5% of housing will not be brought up to standard before December 2010 – the original deadline for the decent homes target.
But according to senior figures at the Chartered Institute of Housing, this figure could be even higher after ministers clawed back £150m from arm’s-length management organisations to pay for more house building.
A shortage of ‘gap funding’, which supports councils transferring poor-quality stock to housing associations, raises further doubts about the condition of properties after 2010, the institute told the communities and local government select committee on October 26.
The government has not updated its decent homes projections since April 2008, when 18% of social housing was below standard. CIH chief executive Sarah Webb said ministers should publish a new assessment and identify funds to clear the backlog.
Housing minister John Healey told a Local Government Association conference last week that he would see the decent homes programme was ‘fully funded and completed’. Four councils with Almos are seeking a judicial review over grant cuts in 2010/11.
The institute also wanted the government to introduce a ‘Decent Homes 2’ standard, based on energy efficiency and other environmental goals.
‘Unless a programme of this kind is begun soon, there is little prospect of the government meeting its carbon reduction targets,’ Webb told the select committee, which is carrying out an inquiry into decent homes.
29 October 2009
Public spending restrictions are likely to increase the amount of social housing that still fails the decent homes standard at the end of next year, MPs were told this week.
The government has already admitted that around 5% of housing will not be brought up to standard before December 2010 – the original deadline for the decent homes target.
But according to senior figures at the Chartered Institute of Housing, this figure could be even higher after ministers clawed back £150m from arm’s-length management organisations to pay for more house building.
A shortage of ‘gap funding’, which supports councils transferring poor-quality stock to housing associations, raises further doubts about the condition of properties after 2010, the institute told the communities and local government select committee on October 26.
The government has not updated its decent homes projections since April 2008, when 18% of social housing was below standard. CIH chief executive Sarah Webb said ministers should publish a new assessment and identify funds to clear the backlog.
Housing minister John Healey told a Local Government Association conference last week that he would see the decent homes programme was ‘fully funded and completed’. Four councils with Almos are seeking a judicial review over grant cuts in 2010/11.
The institute also wanted the government to introduce a ‘Decent Homes 2’ standard, based on energy efficiency and other environmental goals.
‘Unless a programme of this kind is begun soon, there is little prospect of the government meeting its carbon reduction targets,’ Webb told the select committee, which is carrying out an inquiry into decent homes.
