Council will build 15,000 homes

According to Inside Housing:

Councils have drawn up plans to build more than 15,000 homes since the housing subsidy system was scrapped in 2012.

Ninety-two of the 106 stock-holding local authorities in England, which responded to an Inside Housing survey, are using the flexibility granted under housing revenue account reforms to finance new homes. The councils were asked if they had drawn up any plans to use their new spending power, and if so, how many homes they would build over what period.

Since April 2012 councils have been allowed to keep rental income and use it to fund new housing stock.

Of the 92 councils that said they were using the self-financing powers, 78 plan to build a total of 15,630 new homes through their HRAs, over timescales ranging from this year to within the next 30 years. Four local authorities are using their HRAs to purchase a total of 458 homes.

The 14 stock-holding authorities not using the flexibility to finance new homes gave a number of reasons for not doing so – the most common being that they do not have sufficient borrowing headroom.

The research comes as a government-commissioned independent review into house building, led by Natalie Elphicke, chair of housing campaign group Million Homes Million Lives, and Keith House, leader of Eastleigh Council, calls for evidence from housing organisations. Responding to the findings, housing minister Kris Hopkins said: ‘Councils have now built more homes since 2010 than in the previous 15 years combined.’

The Local Government Association, Chartered Institute of Housing and District Councils Network welcomed the surge in house building.

Tony Ball, the DCN’s Lead for Housing, said the new homes would bring ‘local jobs and a boost to the local economy’.

Last autumn chancellor George Osborne announced a £300 million increase in HRA borrowing caps to fund the building of 10,000 new homes