Local authorities should be exempt from the rent reduction in exchange for a commitment to build homes, housing campaigners have said.
The Chartered Institute of Housing’s (CIH) budget submission to Government has called on Whitehall to help councils to become ‘major house builders’.
The submission also recommended the development of a new funding model for supported housing, including a long-term commitment on top-up funding to give certainty to providers.
Funding for regeneration should also be increased, said CIH. They urged the Government to increase the current £140m of regeneration funding by £300m.
The CIH’s budget submission, which included a call for the lower benefit cap to be reversed and funding for social rents, follows their projections last week that 250,000 homes for social rent will have been lost between 2012 and 2020.