Chancellor Rachel Reeves has confirmed a raft of measures to tackle the ‘desperate lack of affordable housing’ including reform of the Right to Buy scheme.
The Government will reduce the Right to Buy discount and enable councils to keep all the receipts generated by sales to boost the social housing stock, Ms Reeves told Parliament.
Since the Right to Buy scheme was introduced in 1980, the stock of council housing has decreased from 5.1 million to 1.6 million.
Promising to ‘get Britain building again’, the Chancellor also confirmed the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) would receive a boost of £500m, bringing its annual budget to £3.1bn. This extra investment will help deliver 5,000 social housing properties.
Ms Reeves also confirmed there would be a consultation on a new five-year social housing rent settlement, which would increase in line with the CPI measurement of inflation, plus 1%. One of the options in the consultation will be a 10-year settlement, which the Local Government Association has said is needed to provide stability to Housing Revenue Accounts.
The Chancellor also confirmed £46m to train planning officers, £233m to go towards tackling homelessness and £1bn to accelerate the removal of dangerous cladding on homes, following the Grenfell Tower report.
Autumn Budget: Beacon of hope or empty promises?
