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Ashby warns sector: boost development or lose political friends
Housing associations have been warned by the regulator to up their housing development or risk losing their newfound political goodwill.
In his regulatory update to the Social Housing Annual Conference, Julian Ashby, chair of the Homes and Communities Agency’s Regulation Committee, told the sector that the government would expect “a significant increase” in return for doing “virtually everything the sector has asked for”.
In his speech, he also revealed that delays to legislation aimed at making the social housing regulator a stand-alone body mean it is “increasingly unlikely” that it will be able to start work in that form in April 2018, as originally planned.
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Mr Ashby referenced the recent spate of housing announcements, from the post-2020 rent settlement to the increase in grant rates and the U-turn on the application of the Local Housing Allowance cap to supported housing.
These announcements have all been greeted positively by the sector but Mr Ashby emphasised that this came at a price: increased development.
He said: “If [the sector] doesn’t now deliver, it may lose such political friends as it has in all parties. And while a majority of associations with more than 1,000 homes are developing new homes… it will be really bad news if the [Affordable Homes] Programme is significantly underspent.”
He added: “The sector will have to consider the risk that it can’t expect more grant if it can’t spend what is already available. If those who can do not step up supply, then they let down both themselves and the sector as a whole.”
“It’s not so long ago that the sector felt very unloved by government. Right to Buy was proposed, not on a voluntary basis, along with Pay to Stay and then the new rent settlement… was replaced by the rent reduction policy,” he said.
“As others have already said this morning, the tone now feels very different. The post-2020 rent settlement is better than most expected and [Local Housing Allowance] caps have been dropped. The talk about supply is explicitly multi-tenure and more grant at higher grant rates has been announced.
“Now I appreciate that development has a significant lead-in time and is not a tap that can be turned on and off. Nevertheless, it is critically important that the sector now steps up to the supply challenge.
“From a government perspective, it has done virtually everything the sector has asked for. It will now expect a significant increase in housing output in return.”
“If it doesn’t now deliver, it may lose such political friends as it has in all parties. And while a majority of associations with more than 1,000 homes are developing new homes, the current AHP [Affordable Homes Programme] grant is facing its usual end-of-year hockey stick. And it will be really bad news if the programme is significantly underspent.”
