We’re out of your league, says LGA

Shelter has accused councils of failing to deliver enough affordable homes, duly prompting a sharp
response from the Local Government Association (LGA). Northern Housing reports

Councils aren’t delivering on affordable housing, with 98 per cent of the country’s local authorities failing to meet the identified needs of their areas, according to the housing charity Shelter.

The organisation has produced a new ‘League Table’ of authorities, which ranks councils on their delivery of affordable housing units against their analysis of need, published on Shelter’s website. The ranking system also provides information on house prices, housing waiting lists, levels of housing delivery and “practical suggestions” of what council’s can do to deliver more homes. According to Shelter, only eight councils out of 323 in England are providing enough homes, while 90 per cent – 292 – provided less than half the numbers of homes identified as needed.

“We know that the recession has created a difficult climate for house building, but these figures clearly show that councils must work far harder to ensure more desperately needed affordable homes are provided if they ever hope to meet the housing needs of their local population,” said Campbell Robb, Shelter’s chief executive.

“With 1.8 million households on housing waiting lists and more than one million children living in overcrowded homes it is unacceptable that only eight councils have provided enough homes to meet local need. A step change in affordable housing delivery is urgently needed and all councils must think about how they can work creatively with their partners to deliver more homes.”

Shelter’s pronouncement didn’t go down well with local authorities. The LGA hit back in no uncertain terms, accusing the charity of making its judgement on the basis of flawed research, and pointing out that councils have faced historic restrictions on capability and funding that severely curtailed their ability to build new homes.

“It is depressing that an organisation which presents itself as a serious advocate for better housing policy is using flawed research to lay the blame for the shortage of affordable housing at councils’ doors,” said a spokesperson for the LGA . “Councils up and down the country want to build and refurbish homes that families need. A serious plan for increasing the number of affordable homes needs to address the barriers which stand in the way of councils building the homes they know people need.

“The fact is that until the housing downturn almost half of all affordable housing was being built because councils make sure they negotiate with private developers when they apply for permission to build homes for sale. Councils have not been able to do anything about the impact of the global recession.

“Town halls have been campaigning for years to change the way council housing is funded to allow them to build hundreds of thousands of much needed homes.”

Proposals that could help councils deliver up to 500,000 new homes have also been outlined, the organisation said, and pointed out that councils are to build 4,000 new homes this year.

“It is also good news that for the first time in 20 years government is funding council building on a serious scale. The rapid take up of this scheme shows there is an appetite among councils to deliver homes. They could do more if the government allowed them to raise money to build homes in the same way as housing associations and private companies,” the LGA’s spokesperson added.

Shelter said that its League Tables will be updated annually to hold councils and government policies to account on the delivery of more affordable homes. The rankings are posted at www.shelter.org. uk/housingleaguetable