Let’s boost the economy by investing in social housing – CIH

At CIH we firmly believe that everyone deserves a safe, secure, comfortable, and affordable place to call home; investing in social housing makes this possible.

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the lockdowns to control its spread, has highlighted the importance of good quality housing. Our package of proposals submitted to the Treasury ahead of the 3 March Budget statement is designed to not only build the homes we need so badly but also boost the economy, create jobs and improve people’s lives when our nation needs it most.

So, what are we asking for?

Investment in 90,000 new social rented homes each year for 10 years, commitment to long-term government investment and support for modern methods of construction to significantly increase the scale and pace of delivery of homes will create jobs and deliver the shot in the arm that the post-pandemic economy will need. Analysis by the Centre for Economic and Business Research shows that, in England, building 90,000 new social homes a year would add £4.8bn to the national economy and support 86,000 jobs.
We want government to commit to helping people with their housing costsso that they can find an affordable, decent place to call home. This includes keeping the extra £20 weekly allowance in universal credit and working tax credit and extending it to those on other, legacy benefits. We also think it’s time to undertake a complete review of the relationship between housing and welfare policy to properly consider the cumulative effects of various measures.
While some initial funding has been made available to enable social housing providers to carry out works to make buildings safe, more is needed. A £1.6 billion fund for the replacement of unsafe cladding on high-rise residential buildings in the social and private sectors and an additional £10 million per year for tailored building checks and inspections is welcome. But, with estimated costs in the region of £16 billion across the social and private rented sector, more is needed to ensure that people are safe in their homes. Complying with the new building safety requirements for higher-risk buildings will also be expensive, with Early Adopters Group estimating it at as high as £90,000 per building in scope per year. Investment in building safety will ensure that resources are not diverted away from new housing supply and will create jobs and help to boost local economies.
Supported housing for working age and older people who have additional support needs is an important resource to ensure that people can live well and safely in communities and also prevent or reduce reliance upon more costly public services, especially social care and health. With this in mind, we have called on government to invest in existing and new supported housing to meet a range of needsand provide a national, ringfenced funding stream for housing related support to the ensure the sustainability of valuable existing and new supported housing schemes.
The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted that homelessness, and rough sleeping in particular, is also a public health issue. The first round of the ‘Everyone In’ initiative found temporary accommodation for 15,000 people and we know that councils and their partners have worked hard to make sure that as few people as possible return to the streets. If government is serious about ending rough sleeping for good, we need to see a stronger focus on homelessness prevention. That’s why we’re asking government to invest in services that are faithful to the Housing First model, floating support and specialist services, for example, for people experiencing domestic abuse.
The Government has stated that it wants to see a ‘green’ recovery. With 14 per cent of emissions coming directly from energy used in building homes and living in them, housing is an area where progress can be made quickly. The economy is in recession and a programme to decarbonise housing is a quick and effective way to stimulate it, potentially creating 325,000 UK jobs over the next 15 years. A welcome range of measures was announced in the Spending Review 2020 with £1.1 billion allocated to continue to support the decarbonisation of buildings through improved energy efficiency. It’s now essential to build on this early investment and ensure that there is a massive drive to make our housing stock zero-carbon ready, with a full-scale programme of investment in retrofit work and ensuring that the skills and supply chain can deliver what is needed at the required pace and quality.