Shelter responds to the Budget

Mairi MacRae, Acting Chief Executive of Shelter, said: “Huge funding boosts in the Budget to tackle rough sleeping and build more social homes are vital, but to deliver the biggest council housebuilding programme since the postwar period the government must go even further. 

“With a record 177,000 children braced for another winter homeless in miserable temporary accommodation, building social homes at scale is paramount. Councils used to deliver thousands of new social homes every year, but the burden of an unfair historical housing debt means they’re shelling out millions in interest repayments to the government instead. 

“Leaving councils saddled with needless debt while expecting them to build enough social homes is like asking them to drive with the handbrake on. The Prime Minister’s pledge to build more council homes will fall short unless the government removes this debt from council balance sheets.” 

ENDS