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Northern landlords ask for brownfield funding and grant top-up ahead of Budget
Northern landlords have asked for brownfield remediation funding and a top-up to the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) ahead of next week’s Budget.
The Northern Housing Consortium (NHC) and JV North set out their demands for the government as reports emerged over the weekend that housing secretary Angela Rayner has secured a £1bn top-up to the existing AHP to help landlords build social homes.
In its submission to the government, the NHC asked for a two-year extension to the AHP ahead of a “new long-term” programme next year. The government has said details of its next five-year AHP will be revealed in spring 2025 alongside the Spending Review.
The group also called for a 10-year rent settlement of the Consumer Price Index plus 1% for social landlords, and a 10-year £4.2bn programme of devolved brownfield funding to help build 320,000 new homes.
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In addition, the NHC asked for Local Housing Allowance rates to be permanently linked to the 30th percentile of local market rents, and for the government to consult on funding and regulation to raise the standards of existing stock, including a new Decent Homes Standard covering the social and private rented sectors.
Finally, it repeated its demand for a £7.5bn retrofit plan for the North, with £500m a year up to 2030 and £1bn a year up to 2035. The NHC argues that this investment could create 77,000 jobs.
JV North, meanwhile, said that a £3bn top-up to the current AHP was “reasonable” and “realistic” if the programme was extended for another two years to avoid a “fallow housebuilding period”.
For the next multi-year AHP, the group is calling for a rolling fund to provide certainty and a long-term plan for housing providers.
John Bowker, chair of JV North, said that with a record number of people on waiting lists, homeless and living in temporary accommodation, “we cannot afford a period where housebuilding stalls”, so it is “crucial the sector is given access to a housebuilding fund”.
He added: “An additional £3bn – a reasonable, realistic request given the original fund was £12.4bn – along with two more years taking us to a 2028 end date would avoid a fallow housebuilding period.
“This would then give government time to fully plan and implement its new programme, which we hope will be announced in spring 2025.”
In this, Mr Bowker said five-year programmes should be replaced with “a rolling fund which would in effect mean continuous market engagement bidding that helps negate, as much as is possible, volatile market conditions such as inflationary build cost pressures”.
Having certainty and a long-term plan will “cascade through the sector giving housing association boards confidence to approve schemes at a time when financial viability is under heavy scrutiny”, he said.
Continuous funding will also avoid repeating risks where housebuilding “slows or stalls as we get circa two-thirds of the way into a programme”, and enable “larger-scale regeneration projects that make a significant impact” to be delivered.
Tracy Harrison, chief executive of the NHC, said: “A priority is an immediate two-year extension to the existing AHP. Our members, particularly smaller and medium-sized providers developing through continuous market engagement, report that they can no longer access grant to build new affordable homes despite having schemes that are ready to start development, stalling the delivery of much-needed homes.”
She added: “There isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ solution. If we want funding to address local issues, there needs to be devolution where local leaders, including mayoral combined authorities, are given the flexibility to use their funding where it’s going to bring the most benefit – for example, ensuring all areas can benefit from brownfield funding investment, not just those with high land values.”
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