Communities Plan spending boost gives housing an extra £457m

Definitive figures obtained by Housing Today show that the Treasury allocated £17.09bn to housing in the comprehensive spending review last summer. This amount increased to £17.55bn after the release by the ODPM of unused funds in the housing revenue account to fund arm's-length management organisations.

It had initially been thought that the £610m for the four south-east growth areas was money in addition to that provided by Gordon Brown, but the housing table shows this was not the case.

This money came largely from a reallocation of resources – much of which centres around the phased abolition of local authority social housing grant. This money, roughly £500m a year, has instead been split between the regional single housing pots, English Partnerships and the four growth areas. For instance, the £100m boost to the Challenge Fund and the £97m that was added to the Housing Corporation's approved development programme budget came from LASHG.