National Housing Federation launches #PlanForHousing

In the run up to the general election the National Housing Federation is calling for all political parties to commit to a long-term plan for housing.

Why we need a long-term plan for housing

Right now, England is in a housing emergency which is affecting our health, our life chances, and our financial security.

There are 8.5 million people in England who can’t access the housing they need. This includes two million children in England living in overcrowded, unaffordable or unsuitable homes.

The total cost to our society caused by poor housing is estimated at £18.5bn per year. The total cost to the NHS is £1.4bn a year.

At believe housing we are committed to providing the healthy affordable homes people need, and helping to create safe and sustainable places that people want to live in.

That’s why we support the National Housing Federation’s calls for all political parties to commit to a long-term plan for housing.

Fixing the housing crisis

The NHF’s plan ‘Let’s fix the housing crisis’ sets out how, by 2035, the next government can work with housing associations to:

Fix child homelessness
Halve overcrowding
Provide the security of a social home for one million more people
Ensure a warm and decent home for seven million more families
Improve affordability
Boost productivity by ensuring every region has the homes it needs to grow.

In our region

Northern housing associations are also calling for a package of measures that will cost the taxpayer nothing but will boost regeneration, housebuilding, and growth in the region early in a new government.

This includes:

Extend flexibilities around net additionality to the new Affordable Homes Programme, giving us the confidence and continuity to unlock stalled schemes.
Introduce new flexibilities for Recycled Capital Grant Funding, enabling housing associations to use existing resources for place regeneration.
Undo recent planning reforms by reintroducing local housing targets and the requirement for local authorities to maintain a 5-year housing land supply.

To enable housing associations across the region to address our current challenges, help deliver more and better homes, and work with the next government to fix the housing crisis, a long-term plan for the North should:

- Boost Northern Growth Proportion of development and retrofit grant funding that comes to the North should be sufficient to meet ambitious economic growth targets.
- Define Properly Affordable Homes Definition of affordable housing should be revisited and aligned with the realities of the cost of living.
- Create Strategic Place Partnerships A single pot, place-based approach to building new homes and improving existing ones, under local control.