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Barwell: new homes for ‘social rent’ will be let at affordable rent levels
A “new generation of homes for social rent” promised by the Conservatives will be at affordable rent levels which can be up to 80% of the market rate, the housing minister has admitted.
The Conservatives recently surprised many in the housing sector with an announcement that they would strike deals with councils and associations to help them build a “new generation of homes for social rent” citing the loss of 300,000 social rented homes compared to 20 years ago.
But, in an exclusive interview with Inside Housing this week Gavin Barwell admitted the new council homes would in fact be at affordable rents, which can be up to 80% of market rate.
Asked if the new homes would be let at “low level council rents”, he replied: “No, I think the idea is that they are what you’d call affordable rents in housing terminology, but they are social housing.”
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Social rents, set according to government formulas, are typically much lower than affordable rates, especially in high rent areas.
The government has not funded them through its programmes since 2010, when George Osborne slashed housing funding as part of his austerity drive.
Social rents typically require higher initial government investment from grant, but affordable rents have been criticised for driving up the benefit bill and locking low-income tenants out of social housing.
John Healey, Labour’s shadow secretary of state for housing, said: “This is another policy pledge from the prime minister that has fallen apart.
“The housing minister has now contradicted Theresa May’s only housing announcement of this election campaign. She promised that the Conservatives would build new homes for ’social rent’, he has confirmed they will not.
“The prime minister now urgently needs to level with the public. Either her housing minister is wrong about Conservative housing policy or she is. Which is it?”
In the interview, Mr Barwell also cast doubt on whether a high-value asset levy for councils will still be used to fund the Right to Buy for housing associations - a key manifesto pledge from 2015 which was left out of the document published last month.
He said: “As and when we move to national roll-out [of the Right to Buy extension] that’s a decision we’ll take with the chancellor.”
However, he said the Conservatives remain committed to giving housing association tenants the right to buy their home.
