John Prescott's long-awaited blueprint for tackling the housing crisis is an ambitious document that has left few areas of housing policy untouched. It has elements that will thrill and surprise some – notably the extra £2bn that appears to be on the table in addition to the £1.5bn announced in the comprehensive spending review – and inevitably disappoint others. And, once there has been time properly to digest it, and crunch the numbers properly, there will no doubt be as many questions as answers.

Still, as an exercise in wrestling money from the Treasury and joined-up government, the plan's ideas are to be applauded. Housing is at last dealing with a single funding pot and a more regional approach to policy. All good sensible stuff. The action on rogue private landlords is also long overdue.

There are three main themes running through the plan: providing more affordable homes in the South-east, revitalising swathes of the North and Midlands, and then ensuring existing stock meets the decent homes standard. The plan lays out the funding and delivery mechanisms for each of them, though with varying degrees of clarity. Prescott's displayed the common trait of dressing up existing spending as new – creating a £22bn package over the next three years. Exactly how much of this is new money is unclear.

As an exercise in wrestling money from the Treasury and joined-up government, Prescott’s ideas are to be applauded

As expected a large slug of money goes to the South-east to build 200,000 new homes in the four growth areas.The signs in Thames Gateway are particularly promising (page 10). There's more money too for the Challenge Fund – again with a portion going to off-site construction techniques, despite the reservations of an ODPM select committee (page 15).There's still no clear-cut direction on the thorny ideological issue of the right to buy. Another typical Labour solution has been applied – set up an inquiry.

Secondly, there's movement on the decent homes standard, where Prescott's magic wand is to bolster the private finance initiative, arm's-length management and partial stock transfer with more cash and debt relief – to the glee of the sector.

Source

Housing Today