Housing Minister Grant Shapps calls for 'aspiration' through home ownership
 The Housing Minister Grant Shapps today claimed that 'the age of aspiration is back' and promised to help people trying to get on the property ladder by boosting the number of new homes being built.
He said 'powerful incentives' would be introduced 'in the next month' to replace the 'meaningless targets' put in place by the previous government to increase housebuilding rates. He also confirmed that the Government will work with housing associations to promote shared ownership and help tenants to own their home.
Shapps confirmed that the Decentralisation and Localism Bill, including proposals to set up Local Housing Trusts for local people to bypass council planning procedures if they can show high levels of support for development, will be introduced in the autumn. However, scrapping the Regional Spatial Strategies, abolishing housing targets and introducing council tax incentives for building could be done without primary legislation before the recess in July.
In response to questioning from Federation chief executive David Orr, Mr Shapps also shed some light on the state of the housing budget. He argued that upon entering government, he had discovered that the £1.5bn promised to housing under Labour's 'Building Britain's Future' proposals had not arrived. He also said £780m announced from the Department of Health had not been transferred, predicted underspends 'did not exist' and expected funds were not available. In the light of this, Mr Shapps argued the Treasury recognised the problem, leading to £170m being returned to Communities and Local Government to build affordable housing as part of the Chancellor's announcement to cut £6bn from public spending.
Mr Shapps confirmed that there will be a capital budget for affordable housing in the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review expected in the autumn but made clear that 'the situation is very, very tight'. Mr Shapps took up David Orr's offer to work with the Federation and housing associations to explore other possible models of funding including institutional investment and other vehicles. Mr Shapps also confirmed his support for shared ownership but said that the department would 'go back and look again' at Social Homebuy and Rent-to-Homebuy which he argued had not had the impact which was promised.
The Federation will continue to work closely with the new government to ensure that we make the case for the importance of continued investment in affordable housing.
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