NHF response to the Queen's Speech

Responding to the Queen’s Speech today, Kate Henderson, Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation, said:

“It’s good to see this government put housing high up the political agenda for the next parliament.

“The government is providing welcome clarity on how to make homes safer in the long term and consulting on how to provide more protection for private renters. We look forward to working with the government to ensure social housing residents are always listened to, but hope to see full legislation on the Social Housing White Paper proposals as soon as possible.

“However, there has been no new update today on who will pay for all immediate building safety works, such as replacing cladding, in social housing. Charitable housing associations are diverting billions of pounds away from improving existing social homes and have been forced to cancel the building of thousands of new ones to cover these costs. Meanwhile, homeowners are left picking up huge bills.

“The government’s Planning Bill, whilst aiming to make it easier to get more homes approved quickly, scraps the policy which is the single biggest contributor to building new affordable homes.

“Housing associations want to invest more in their existing homes and they want to build more new social housing for the millions of people who desperately need it. We know the government shares these ambitions and we want to work with them to ensure their policies will make these ambitions a reality.”