Cuts: What they mean to CLG and housing budgets
Monday 7 June 2010
The Homes and Communities Agency budget will be cut by £230m this financial year, the Federation understands.
The cuts, which have been identified by Communities and Local Government (CLG), will include:
- £100m from the National Affordable Housing Programme (NAHP) on uncommitted, unallocated schemes
- £50m from Kickstart on uncontracted schemes
- £50m from Housing Market Renewal (HMR), which is a cut of around 20%
- £30m from the Gypsy and Traveller Sites Grant, which effectively ends the programme.
There are also concerns that funding for the HCA programme from year end flexibility and other departments is now in doubt.
The cuts will not apply to NAHP schemes which have already been allocated funding, but for Kickstart projects, contracts will need to be in place for funding to be released.
CLG said that it remained committed to Housing Market Renewal, which funds regeneration schemes, but made the decision to cut the budget because there was £50m of unallocated funding.
The Government has confirmed that the mortgage rescue scheme and the amount of area based grant given to local authorities under the Supporting People settlement will be maintained. The funding of homelessness schemes will also be saved from budget cuts.
Gap funding for this year is fully committed and therefore unaffected by the cuts.
Federation chief executive David Orr said: 'The Government has publicly recognised that social housing represents a key frontline service and we will be making the case as strongly as possible to ministers that it should be funded as such.
'We will continue to work closely with the HCA and CLG to establish what the implications of these cuts will be for housing associations and the communities they serve.'
The Federation will keep members up to date on all relevant announcements.
Further information
For further information, please contact the Federation’s head of investment policy and strategy, Stuart Ropke, on 020 7067 1103 or stuartr@housing.org.uk.
