The post-Brexit Budget and housing

What can we expect?

This post-Brexit Budget is likely to focus on the Conservative manifesto commitment to ‘level-up’ the nation and spread opportunity, and the government has talked about opening ‘a new chapter’ for the British economy. Funding is likely to be announced for infrastructure, health, communities and climate change.

We’ve been making a strong case for certainty over housing investment, and have welcomed the government’s commitment to renew the Affordable Homes Programme. However, current indications are that the programme will be renewed in the autumn Spending Review and not in this Budget.

The recent announcement that Local Housing Allowance will be unfrozen means that further changes to welfare spending are also unlikely in the Budget, although homelessness and rough sleeping may receive funding.

What happens when?

The deadline for submissions to the Budget is Friday 7 February. The Federation will be making a submission on behalf of the sector, setting out the opportunities and challenges facing housing and communities – and how government investment could help housing associations deliver.

Our submission will outline four key areas for investment, picking up the priorities we focused on in our 2019 general election campaign:

• New homes, welcoming the government’s commitment to continue the Affordable Homes Programme and emphasising the need for certainty beyond 2021.
• Regeneration, echoing the government’s ambition to level-up, reiterating the recommendations in our Great Places work, and being clear that there are places which need investment all around the country.
• Support and welfare, focusing on the need for support funding for supported housing, and talking about how this can help tackle homelessness.
• Building safety, emphasising housing associations’ commitment to safety and setting out why the government must extend remediation funding beyond the current ACM cladding programme.

If you would like to know more about our submission, share any views, or if you are making your own submission, please get in touch.

We will share our submission on our website and with members after 7 February.