Latest news with #AffordableHomesProgramme
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Rayner triggers record year for Right to Buy
Right to Buy applications are projected to reach a two-decade high ahead of Labour's dramatic overhaul of the scheme, analysis suggests. The number of council tenants using Right to Buy will rocket by 162pc, with 18,500 homes changing hands in 2025-26, according to local authority predictions. But experts warned the surge would effectively undermine Angela Rayner's home building ambitions. She previously pledged to build 18,000 new social homes by 2029. Right to Buy, a flagship policy of Margaret Thatcher, allows tenants who have lived in a council property for three years or more to purchase it from their local authority at a discounted rate. The requirement will rise to 10 years under reforms led by Ms Rayner, the Housing Secretary, who benefited from the Right to Buy scheme herself. Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, also cut the maximum discount available from £136,000 to £16,000 in most London boroughs and from £102,000 to £38,000 outside the capital. The decision was announced in her maiden Budget in October. Analysis by the i newspaper found councils in some areas had seen applications for the scheme double following the announcement. Overall, councils predicted 18,500 homes would be sold off in the next year. It amounts to the highest number of Right to Buy homes being sold in a single year than any other time in the last two decades. Dr Samuel Hughes, of the Centre for Policy Studies think tank, warned that the Government's reforms would make it 'unaffordable for any but the richest tenants to take advantage of the scheme'. He said: 'It is not surprising that many are racing to buy their homes now, before they are taken out of reach.' The Local Government Association, which represents councils in England and Wales, warned that the spike in Right to Buy applications 'will further exacerbate the homelessness challenges that councils are working hard to address'. The trade body maintained that the reforms were 'a step in the right direction' but urged the Government to ensure the scheme was fit for purpose. A spokesman said: 'The Government announcement that Right to Buy discounts were to be reduced appeared to lead to a significant increase in the number of Right to Buy applications made by social housing tenants ahead of the reductions taking effect. 'Whilst there will be positive longer-term benefits of the discount levels in stemming the continued loss of stock, the short-term impact is a spike in the sale of desperately needed social homes.' The Housing Department is spending £800m a year on its Affordable Homes Programme, and earmarked a further £2bn down payment in March's spending review. A government spokesman said: 'Too many social homes have been sold off before they can be replaced, which has directly contributed to the worst housing crisis in living memory. 'This government has delivered on its manifesto commitment to reviewing the increased discounts introduced in 2012, and our reforms will reverse this decline and deliver a fairer scheme by supporting councils to retain the receipts to rebuild their housing stock, while retaining a route for longstanding tenants to own their own homes.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Rayner triggers record year for Right to Buy
Right to Buy applications are projected to reach a two-decade high ahead of Labour's dramatic overhaul of the scheme, analysis suggests. The number of council tenants using Right to Buy will rocket by 162pc, with 18,500 homes changing hands in 2025-26, according to local authority predictions. But experts warned the surge would effectively undermine Angela Rayner's home building ambitions. She previously pledged to build 18,000 new social homes by 2029. Right to Buy, a flagship policy of Margaret Thatcher, allows tenants who have lived in a council property for three years or more to purchase it from their local authority at a discounted rate. The requirement will rise to 10 years under reforms led by Ms Rayner, the Housing Secretary, who benefited from the Right to Buy scheme herself. Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, also cut the maximum discount available from £136,000 to £16,000 in most London boroughs and from £102,000 to £38,000 outside the capital. The decision was announced in her maiden Budget in October. Analysis by the i newspaper found councils in some areas had seen applications for the scheme double following the announcement. Overall, councils predicted 18,500 homes would be sold off in the next year. It amounts to the highest number of Right to Buy homes being sold in a single year than any other time in the last two decades. Dr Samuel Hughes, of the Centre for Policy Studies think tank, warned that the Government's reforms would make it 'unaffordable for any but the richest tenants to take advantage of the scheme'. He said: 'It is not surprising that many are racing to buy their homes now, before they are taken out of reach.' The Local Government Association, which represents councils in England and Wales, warned that the spike in Right to Buy applications 'will further exacerbate the homelessness challenges that councils are working hard to address'. The trade body maintained that the reforms were 'a step in the right direction' but urged the Government to ensure the scheme was fit for purpose. A spokesman said: 'The Government announcement that Right to Buy discounts were to be reduced appeared to lead to a significant increase in the number of Right to Buy applications made by social housing tenants ahead of the reductions taking effect. 'Whilst there will be positive longer-term benefits of the discount levels in stemming the continued loss of stock, the short-term impact is a spike in the sale of desperately needed social homes.' The Housing Department is spending £800m a year on its Affordable Homes Programme, and earmarked a further £2bn down payment in March's spending review. A government spokesman said: 'Too many social homes have been sold off before they can be replaced, which has directly contributed to the worst housing crisis in living memory. 'This government has delivered on its manifesto commitment to reviewing the increased discounts introduced in 2012, and our reforms will reverse this decline and deliver a fairer scheme by supporting councils to retain the receipts to rebuild their housing stock, while retaining a route for longstanding tenants to own their own homes.' Sign in to access your portfolio
Daily Mail
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Interactive map reveals the towns where up to 3% of homes are empty
Labour was today urged to tackle the scourge of empty homes to tackle Britain's housing crisis. Across England as a whole, almost 265,000 dwellings are long-term vacant. Yet, in parts of the country, close to 3 per cent of homes are empty, MailOnline can reveal. Housing experts say converting the legion of vacant dwellings would help ease the shortage, which has priced millions out of owning their own homes and made rents rocket. Sir Keir Starmer 's government has promised to build 1.5million homes by the end of this parliament under their 'bulldozer blitz'. Critics have accused them on waging war on rural England, concerned that swathes of Green Belt land will be concreted over. Yet ministers are on course to miss the target, sparking calls for them to instead turn their attention to the £70billion catalogue of abandoned properties. This would help thousands of families who are trying to find an affordable home to rent or buy, and help tackle the soaring numbers in temporary accommodation, experts say. Francesca Albanese, of homelessness charity Crisis, said: 'Homelessness is rising across England, with record numbers of households stuck in temporary accommodation including a staggering 160,000 children. 'This is trapping people in poverty, as well as causing damage to their health and wellbeing. 'Meanwhile, there are thousands of vacant properties standing empty that could be repurposed as genuinely affordable homes. 'The sticking point is that there's currently no incentive to encourage councils, who are already struggling financially, to bring empty properties and other unused buildings into use to tackle homelessness.' Chris Bailey, for the campaign group Action on Empty Homes, believes councils need more powers, staff and financial resources to sort out the problem. He said: 'Long-term empty homes matter because the worst impacts of our housing crisis, while both shocking and potentially deadly, involve relatively small numbers of families (around 120,000) costing taxpayers billions in Temporary Accommodation costs. 'Empty homes could cut this bill if utilised.' The group argues that getting empty properties back in circulation is better than building new homes as it saves on land and avoids wasting carbon, helping to combat climate change. However many of the long-term vacant homes are old, in need of investment and are nowhere near ready to be lived in. Homes can also sit empty for other reasons. For instance, there may be a feud within a family after an owner has died because one relative doesn't want another to benefit from any sale. Councils already have extensive tools to bring empty homes back into use. They can charge anywhere between 50 per cent to 300 per cent extra on council tax bills for homes left empty for more than two years. Local authorities can get funding through the Affordable Homes Programme to help bring homes back into use. As a last resort, councils can use a Compulsory Purchase Order to buy a property without the owner's permission. One home in the village of Horden in County Durham had a fake door plastered on its frontage alongside a boarded up window to fool criminals into thinking it was lived in And through the New Homes Bonus, local authorities receive the same level of reward from central government for bringing an empty home back into use as building a new one. But over the years there has been calls for the government to go further, for instance to cut VAT on refurbishment to help owners make homes ready for needy tenants, or to abolish council tax discounts and exemptions on empty homes. The Local Government Association (LGA), the national membership body for local authorities in England and Wales, believes they must be given more power to reduce the number of empty homes. Councillor Adam Hug, the housing spokesperson for the LGA said: 'Long-term empty homes represent a missed opportunity to provide housing for those in need and those on housing waiting lists. 'Councils share a collective national ambition to tackle local housing challenges. 'However, they must be sufficiently empowered and funded to carry out work on this area.' He argues that the qualifying period for Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMO) needs to be reduced to six months. Currently, EDMOs can only be used on properties vacant for two years and linked to anti-social or criminal behaviour. Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government data suggests 2.8 per cent of dwellings in Kingston-upon-Thames are long-term vacant. For a home to be officially classed as 'long-term empty', it has to be liable for council tax, unfurnished, and no one has lived in it for over six months. These statistics, accurate as of October, are then compared against the most up-to-date estimates of dwellings in each authority. Vacancy figures above 2 per cent were seen in six other parts of the country – Isles of Scilly, Middlesbrough, Bolsover, Torbay, Preston, and Kensington and Chelsea. When looking at raw numbers, Birmingham has the biggest supply of empty homes (5,406). Nationwide, the figure has risen from 200,000 in 2016. Although the figures say there are now just shy of 265,000 long-term vacant homes, some campaigners believe the true number is closer to 1 million. However, the vast majority of them are not included in the official data because they have an exception. For example, a property might not be included in the count if the owner is in care or has recently died and the property is held in probate (waiting to be transferred to a beneficiary). There are also homes that haven't been unfurnished and empty for longer than six months but which may well be categorised as long-term empties soon. Action on Empty Homes also estimates there are around 260,000 second homes – holiday or weekend homes left to sit empty for months. As well as being a waste of resources, long-term empties can also become an issue for those in the local community. Organised criminal gangs have seized empty homes to farm cannabis, unbeknownst to the owner. Teenage tearaways have also been known to break into them. Locals might move out to avoid the problems, which can then have a knock-on effect on businesses that might struggle to survive without the custom. However even if all of the 265,000 long-term empty homes were brought back into circulation, experts warn it would still not be enough. A 2023 report published by the property experts Savills said it would account for approximately just one year's worth of current housing delivery – falling short of the 300,000 minimum additional dwellings a year required to satisfy demand. Mairi MacRae, of the housing charity Shelter, said: 'Genuinely affordable social homes are in vanishingly short supply and the country is paying a heavy price. 'A record 165,510 children are homeless in temporary accommodation often shoddy private rentals. 'With more than 1.3million households stuck on social housing waiting lists, it's incredibly frustrating to see homes sitting empty. 'There are no quick fixes for a housing emergency of this scale, but acquiring and converting long-term empty homes is a cheap and sustainable way to get some of the social rent homes we need quickly. 'The government must leave no stone unturned if it's serious about ending homelessness. It must seize the opportunity to convert homes that sit empty for more than six months.' A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: 'We are determined to fix the housing crisis we have inherited, and we know that having too many empty homes in an area can have a significant impact on the local community. 'That's why councils have a range of powers to bring them back into use, including charging additional council tax on vacant properties and the ability to take over the management of long-term empty homes.'
BBC News
02-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
House building costs highest in London - Centre for London finds
The cost of building homes in London is more than in other parts of England, think tank analysis has Centre for London reported the upfront cost of constructing 88,000 new homes a year, the government's annual target for the capital, is roughly 43 times higher than the equivalent target in the West research was shared at the centre's 2025 housing summit on Wednesday, where Sem Moema, chair of the London Assembly housing committee, said: "If we don't fix the housing crisis, the character of the city will be extinguished."A Mayor of London spokesperson said: "The mayor will continue to work in partnership with the government to deliver more genuinely affordable homes." 'Closing schools' Separate polling by the think tank, which is politically independent, found 60% of Londoners surveyed had considered moving out of the capital due to housing costs rising over the past 12 months, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) Moema, a Labour member representing Hackney, Islington and Waltham Forest at City Hall, said: "I see in my own constituency the hollowing out that occurs and continues to occur, when the failure to fix the housing crisis for a decade and a half changes the character of our city, and not for the better."In all three boroughs, we're being forced to consider closing schools, because there are basically no children left in northeast London. "Families can no longer afford to own or even rent properties in my boroughs."Centre for London's research found the crisis is being exacerbated by the upfront cost to developers being at least £2.2bn, if they built enough homes to hit the government's target in the estimate was produced by combining the costs associated with the Building Safety Levy, Section 106 agreements, the Community Infrastructure Levy and planning fees for local councils, according to the analysis. The figure in the West Midlands metropolitan county – which includes Birmingham – was only £50.6m, and only slightly higher in Greater Manchester at £61.3m. In the London borough of Wandsworth alone, which had the highest cost of any London council area, according to the LDRS, the estimate was £253.9m. 'Invest in capital' Ms Moema said: "We have a generation who will never get on to the property ladder independently."We need to confront this reality. As with climate change, the costs of not doing anything will be greater than the costs of further investment."A spokesperson for the mayor said: "The mayor is working hard to turn things around, building on a strong track record of delivering tens of thousands of genuinely affordable homes across the capital and more new council homes than any time since the 1970s." 'Ambitious solutions' Commenting on the Labour government's approach to tackling the housing crisis, Centre for London CEO Antonia Jennings said: "We've seen increased investment in the Affordable Homes Programme, planning reform which allow building on low-quality sections of the green belt and the new Renters Reform Bill. "But, these are only the very first steps."She added: "We urgently need ambitious solutions that respond to the scale of the challenges facing the capital. "The government must get behind London's leaders and invest in the capital to finally turn the corner on the housing crisis." The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has said meeting the housing challenge in London is a "crucial part" of its national mission to build 1.5m homes and kickstart economic government added that it had made "£200m available through the Brownfield Infrastructure and Land fund to strategic sites across the capital".Another £81m from the Housing Infrastructure Fund is also being given to Transport for London (TfL) to make improvements to Surrey Quays Station and "unlock more than 8,000 new homes in Southwark and Lewisham".
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Cost of moving rockets after surge in stamp duty
The cost of moving house has jumped by 45pc in the past five years and is set to spiral further following an increase in stamp duty this month. Taxes, fees and surveys cost the average homebuyer in the past year £13,530, according to Barclays, up from £9,337 before the pandemic. It comes as the stamp duty discount expired at the end of March, cutting the threshold at which movers pay the tax from £250,000 to £125,000. First-time buyers now pay the levy on homes costing more than £300,000, not £425,000 as before. It means a typical first-time buyer in London will have to pay almost £7,000 more in stamp duty than they did a month ago. The number of mortgage completions jumped by 50pc in March compared to the same month a year ago, Barclays said, as buyers raced to make their purchases before the higher tax rate kicked in. Stamp duty raked in an estimated £13.5bn for the Exchequer in the last financial year, and the Office for Budget Responsibility expects the annual haul to rise to £24.5bn by the end of the decade. The extent of the tax – which costs £5,000 on the purchase of a £300,000 home, rising to £15,000 for a property worth £500,000, and £43,700 for anyone buying a £1m house as their only property – is so severe that a quarter of homeowners say it is the main barrier to moving. That share rises to 40pc for buyers in Generation Z, those born in or after the mid to late 1990s. Changing rules on taxes mean that one third of homeowners do not know how much stamp duty they would have to pay if moving, the bank found. Meanwhile 40pc are unaware of the cost of legal fees. Council tax and energy bills are also rising, as are rents and the interest payments on mortgages for those refinancing on to higher rates from fixes obtained before borrowing costs shot up during the cost of living crisis. Three quarters of those surveyed said their housing costs were rising. Rising taxes are among the factors hammering sentiment in the economy, with confidence in household finances declining and 40pc of households adjusting their monthly spending to cope with housing costs, Barclays said. Jatin Patel, of Barclays, said: 'For existing homeowners and renters the shift in sentiment reflects the cautiousness felt across the economy as a whole, as consumers are concerned about rising bills and the prospect of global tariffs impacting their wallets. 'Housing consumes a significant portion of income, particularly for renters. 'With four in 10 adjusting their spending to meet their housing costs, it's clear that the financial pressures of maintaining a home are intensifying at a time where people face a delicate balance between their essential spending and long-term financial goals.' A Treasury spokesman said: 'We are taking decisive action to deliver 1.5m homes as part of our Plan for Change, including a £2bn boost to the Affordable Homes Programme and introducing a permanent and comprehensive mortgage guarantee to support families into safe and decent homes.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
