Boateng: No more cash for housing, lets see some results

There will be no repeat of his year’s government funding for housing so the sector will have to make the most of it, chief secretary to the Treasury Paul Boateng has said.

Speaking to Housing Today ahead of today’s speech to the National Housing Federation conference in Birmingham, Boateng said: “This is a once in a professional lifetime opportunity for the social housing sector to make a massive difference. We have to grab it and go with it.”

But the cabinet minister and Treasury second-in-command warned that future spending reviews would not be as generous as July’s £20bn for housing, and stressed the Treasury’s new focus on efficiency.

He said: “Most of us have lived our professional lives at a period of housing famine; now we are in a time of relative plenty. But to make the most of that, we have to seize the opportunity that is presented.”

Nevertheless, he offered a reminder that the housing sector was getting more attention from the government than it had in recent memory. “If you were told a decade ago you were going to get this level of increase in resources for housing; that you were going to see the emphasis the prime minister, the chancellor, and the deputy prime minister place on housing, people wouldn’t have believed you.

“Now we have that commitment of resources by the taxpayer, a £430m increase in direct investment, an expanded PFI programme and an opportunity to plough back into the sector what you gain in efficiencies.”

What Boateng means by opportunity – it is one of his favourite words – includes the opportunity for reform. “We are living in a time of real reform and whether we are talking about the reform of the Housing Corporation, local authorities, the legislative reforms of housing, this presents us with a once in a lifetime professional opportunity.”

This reform includes the switch to direct payment of housing benefit. Boateng said: “The local housing allowance is just one of three strands of housing benefit reform … but a very important strand and when it works it can make a massive difference.”

Responding to claims that direct payment leads to arrears, he said: “That is why you can’t see it in isolation either from the need to get alongside tenants to help them manage their finances. It can be done.”

He also cautioned social landlords to become more closely involved in preventing the escalation of housing debts. “When there is a danger of arrears, the housing association isn’t there just to make it happen … but actively work with the tenants in order to prevent it happening. It can be done.

“We have to embrace that opportunity that presents for better and more inclusive relationships between the movement and the tenants.”