The UK government will reduce discounts on the right-to-buy scheme to stimulate housing growth, chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced.
Speaking in the Autumn Budget, Reeves announced her decision to lower discounts as a measure that will “increase the supply of affordable housing”.
“Having heard representations from local authorities, social housing providers, and from Shelter, I can today confirm that the government will reduce right-to-buy discounts,” she stated.
She argued that, as a result, local authorities will be able to retain the full receipts from any sales from social housing so that the government can invest the back into the housing stock.
“By doing this, we will give more people a safe, secure, and affordable place to live,” she added.
This was not the only housing announcement made in this year’s Budget as Reeves also announced an investment worth over £5bn next year to deliver the government’s plans on housing.
“We committed in our manifesto to building 1.5mn houses over the course of the current parliament,” she explained.
“Today I am providing over £5bn of government investment to deliver our plans on housing next year.”
Reeves detailed that this new investment includes increasing the affordable homes programme to £3.1bn which will enable the building of thousands of new homes.
Additionally, the government pledged to provide £3bn worth of support in guarantees to “boost the supply of homes and support our small housebuilders”.
Finally, Reeves announced that the government will provide investment to renovate sites “across the country”.
This including Liverpool Central Docks, where 2,000 new homes will be built, and funding to help Cambridge “realise its full growth potential”.
Saffron Building Society head of business development, Tony Hall, was positive about optimistic about the amount pledged, stating: “£5bn of government investment in house building, including support for the smaller builder...positive words.”
However, he went on to criticise Reeves for her brevity, stating: “Housing only important enough for two minutes of the chancellor's speech, not sure how that is going to build 1.5m homes over this parliament?”
Planning
The government also pledged to provide more housing through planning reform, stating that “housing delivery cannot be achieved at the scale the country requires without reforms to the planning system”.
As a result, the budget committed to providing £46mn of additional funding to support recruitment and training of 300 graduates and apprentices into local planning authorities.
It argued that this will accelerate large sites that are stuck in the system, and boost and upskill local planning authority capacity to deliver the government’s wider reform agenda.
tom.dunstan@ft.com
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