So Monday wasn't a bad day for housing, even though it didn't get the largesse that health and education enjoyed. The chancellor didn't give the sector all the money it asked for, but it got more than it might have feared. There was an extra £1bn or so to spend and incentives – whatever they may turn out to be – to speed up planning. But despite extensive leaks, Brown managed to spring some last-minute surprises – the main one being that his gifts came with regulatory strings attached in the form of a new housing watchdog.

First, the money: by 2005, says Brown, the government will be pumping £5.9bn a year into housing – double the spending when it came to power in 1997 and £1.4bn more than today. Not enough to eliminate the housing crisis, say the experts striving to make sense of the figures, but it lays a foundation for tackling it.

Precisely how these spoils will be divided up won't be known until Prescott's statement today. We'll learn then how much of the money will make its way directly to housing associations, go by way of councils to help implement the Homelessness Act, get channelled into arm's-length management companies, or go to the mysterious new types of social landlord Prescott mentioned in his initial response. It's also not clear how much of Monday's spending plan will be directly aimed at helping councils meet the decent homes target by offering dowries to ease stock transfer, but plans to extend the target to some areas of the private sector should prove welcome.

The money is not enough to eliminate the housing crisis, but it lays a foundation for tackling it

The indications are that the South-east will receive an emergency infusion to build homes for the lower-paid and the North will get a slower drip-feed of cash to kick-start the market renewal programme. It's bound to lead to complaints of a North-South divide, but the government has little choice but to respond differently to the needs of Burnley and Bermondsey. Pouring money into the capital is not a sustainable strategy, of course. To its credit, the government appears to recognise this, and has bravely promised a new target to balance the supply and demand of homes across the country.

Source

Housing Today