Shelter responds to 'Build, Build, Build' speech from Prime Minister
Posted 30 Jun 2020
Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: “Despite all the bluster about building new homes, the Prime Minister has today cut his government’s housebuilding budget by a third each year. It's quite incredible that the he thinks he can build more homes with less money.
“With the housebuilding sector teetering on the brink, we need rapid investment but instead the government has slowed the Affordable Homes Programme by three years. This isn't a new deal, this is a bad deal. Hundreds of thousands of new homes and jobs are at risk.
“No planning reform of any size or shape is a substitute for a funding cut, let alone reforms that will only result in a small amount of bad quality housing. We’ve already seen what happens when you take the blockers off bad housing – families end up in dangerous, overcrowded, rabbit-hutch homes. Far from bouncing forward this is stumbling backwards.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
Planning for the Future: “Renewing our commitment to affordable housing – in the Budget we announced a £12 billion investment in Affordable Homes – the biggest cash investment in affordable housing for a decade. This is expected to bring in around a further £38 billion public and private investment. This new five-year investment will deliver more affordable housing, help more people to own their own home, and build more social rent homes, helping those most at risk of homelessness in areas of the country where affordability is most acute.”
In the government’s press release today: “A £12bn affordable homes programme that will support up to 180,000 new affordable homes for ownership and rent over the next eight years, confirmed today.”