Housing plan ‘will not help region’
Nov 27 2008 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal
A £400m plan to create more affordable housing across the country will see just £8m invested in the North East. Experts warned the low investment would have virtually no impact in the region.
And the leader of Newcastle City Council said it was just the latest example of Whitehall ignoring the North in favour of London and the South East.
In autumn the Government announced it would bring forward the multi-million pound fund originally intended to be spent in 2011. It will be handed over to councils and social housing groups in a desperate bid to ensure more affordable homes are built. But when experts met at a North East Assembly meeting they made it clear families in the region were unlikely to see any real difference.
Assembly members were told that with only £8m available from Government funds for affordable houses it would make little overall difference in a region of more than 2.5 million.
Julie Jacques, the Housing Corporation head of regional investment, told members the way the fund was distributed would mean “it will not have a significant impact”.
Donald Urquhart, director of housing at English Partnerships, said the figures were just one feature of a complex funding problem.
He told members the situation in the housing market had changed dramatically over the last few months and that the Government risked “spending tomorrow’s money today on yesterday’s problems”.
Mr Urquhart told The Journal: “We have a problem of a lack of homes that people can afford that has been building up for some years now and it is important we look at how to deal with that.” Bill Shepherd, Newcastle Council’s executive member for housing, said: “We get promised quite a lot, but when you actually work through the detail there is often too little there.
“I don’t think we get our fair share, not in the North East overall and certainly not in Tyne and Wear.
“We receive far short of what we are entitled to and the main reason for that is that this Government has historically fixated on the situation in the South East and how to help households there.”
Mr Shepherd said the situation may improve when the House and Communities Agency is set up in December.
The council is already in negotiations to secure millions of pounds worth of housing investment.
Monica Burns, regional housing manager for the National Housing Federation, said it was obvious the North East would not “get its fair share”. She said: “The distribution of Government funds has to be looked at.
“They could have been a lot more generous to the region.
“We know houses are more expensive in the South East, but wages there are higher.
“There are many homes in this region that cost more than eight times the buyers’ salary and it is misleading to say we do not have a serious problem of housing affordability in the North East.
“Overall there is a five-year waiting list for social housing here.”
Last year the Federation estimated the North East needed 1,300 new affordable home a year to settle demand. The economic downturn means that figure is unlikely to be met.
A spokesperson for Communities & Local Government said: “We recognise that market conditions are currently difficult for housebuilders as a result of the global credit crunch, which is why we have put measures in place to support homeowners and industry, including funding to buy unsold properties off the open market to use as affordable homes.”
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