The Government spends more maintaining the Houses of Parliament than on improvements to England’s 20 million privately rented and owner-occupied homes, according to a new report.
An average of £100m is spent annually to maintain the Houses of Parliament while the average yearly spend issued for home improvement grants is £93m, according to the report from the Centre for Ageing Better and the Healthier Housing Partnership.
Average yearly spend on home improvements has dropped by 70% since a decade ago; between 2001-2 and 2010-11, £327m was spent each year.
Centre for Ageing Better chief executive Dr Carole Easton said the ‘failure’ to maintain adequate funding had fuelled a housing crisis, with nearly 10 million people living in unsafe, cold or damp homes.
Dr Easton said: ‘It is imperative that national government revert to, at minimum, previous levels of home improvement support while making it easier for low-income homeowners to access the finance they need to repair and maintain their homes.
She said without this action, the country’s housing stock would ‘continue to deteriorate and create enormous health issues that will require much greater public investment in the future to tackle.’
