You had us all fooled, Mr Prescott. Here we were, expecting to be given a full breakdown of how you'd be spending Mr Brown's money. In the event, the detail we got was so scanty it would barely fill the back of an envelope. The deputy prime minister has rejected the Treasury's spending blueprint, we hear. The sums didn't seem to add up, he declared, and he will divvy up the cash himself. So we are left with questions. How will it be divided between North and South? Between the Housing Corporation and possible new regional bodies? Between "growth areas" and the inner cities?

Importantly, we hear this debate will not only centre on the new funding but could look at the whole of the Housing Corporation grant. In essence, by 2005 the way housing funding is allocated could be completely different. To make it potentially even more exciting, Prescott has also announced a sweeping review of ways to meet the decent homes target. Again, no detail, but stock transfer and private finance could and should be put under the microscope. For yet more spice, don't forget the creation of a single inspector.

At first, Prescott's sequel to Brown's blockbuster might have seemed at best highly spun, at worst deeply dull. Now, depending on decisions to be made in the autumn, it could prove to have wide-ranging ramifications for the sector.

The detail we got from Prescott was so scanty it would barely fill the back of an envelope

One thing we know for sure is that Prescott can't perform miracles. There is nowhere near enough money to go round. On the basis of the National Housing Federation's calculations, there is £2.5bn of new money. Subtract the (largely confirmed) £500m chunk for the market renewal fund and the £350m announced for the planners. There is bound to be help for councils to reach the decent homes target. Many experts reckon this leaves enough cash to build around 15,000 extra homes a year, on top of the 22,000 the Housing Corporation currently delivers. That's a substantial increase, and when you throw in other funding, this number could hit 40,000. But that's not the 200,000 figure being casually bandied about. As Niall Dickson points out on page 18, Prescott is careful to say that 200,000 is the figure (affordable or not) that could be built in the four new growth areas.

Changes to planning also appeared to be little more than smoke and mirrors. Prescott's strength on this front was his apparent determination to get tough on authorities who were failing to meeting new-build targets. The dreaded tariff proposals have been dropped, but there was little comfort for anyone currently at loggerheads over how much affordable housing could be included on a site.