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HomeArrow NewsArrow What has happened to social housing?

What has happened to social housing?

There can be little doubt that the Autumn budget of 2024 was one that attracted much attention following the many ‘briefings’ and hares set running in different directions.

Like many I watched the budget with both hope and trepidation. My hopes were twofold: 1) that the Chancellor had listened and understood that the only way to end rough sleeping and homelessness is to build 90,000 new social homes every year for the next ten years and 2) that funding would be confirmed for homeless charities such as St Martins to be able to continue the lifesaving work of supporting people off the streets.

My trepidations were around the much-publicised tax cuts and how these would impact upon the charities delivering support to people who are homeless or sleeping rough.

So, did the budget deliver for some of the most vulnerable people in England?

Well, it really was a mixed bag. The Chancellor was keen to use the term ‘affordable’ housing when talking about the increase in available housing. There was no mention of the number of social homes that would be built.

Affordable housing is very different to social housing. The Government definition of affordable is 20% less than market value, social rents are approximately 50% of market value. Quite simply, affordable housing isn’t affordable for the people we support here at St Martins. It is social housing that is desperately needed if we are to end the housing crisis.

The Chancellor announced several measures which will help to reduce the loss of Local Authority housing stock and support them to reinvest but this is just the tip of the iceberg; it will take time to realise, meanwhile the number of people on the streets will continue to increase.

There was good news in terms of the £230m funding to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping but it was unclear if this was additional funding (but if it was the word additional would have been proudly inserted). The details of how funds will be allocated will become clearer over the next few weeks but for now we, like many other homeless charities, wait for vital information which may help us to balance our 2025/26 budgets.

The heavy tax burden of £25b about to be placed upon businesses will impact upon charities too. Wage bills will increase, this in turn will mean less team members available to get people off the streets.  A 1.2% increase and the lowing of the tax threshold is a bitter pill to swallow for organisations doing life saving work. For St Martins this means an additional £140,000 on the salary bill.

The 2024 Autumn budget went some small way to address the housing crisis but there is a long way to go. Addressing this crisis once and for all will mean that not only do people have a roof over their heads, somewhere to call home but it would also reduce government spend in other key areas providing a springboard into more savings, prosperity and growth.

 

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