South West Housing Initiative

SOUTH WEST HOUSING CAMPAIGNERS CELEBRATE THE REGION’S GOVERNMENT VICTORY

South West‘s biggest housing crisis wins the biggest cash increase for more affordable homes

No fears of a price-crash for home-owners

Members of the South West Housing Initiative – a unique partnership of the region‘s biggest house builders, housing associations, housing professionals, and employers, formed to tackle the region‘s dire homes crisis – are celebrating the Government announcement that the region is to receive the country‘s biggest increase in funding for more affordable homes.

Housing Minister, Yvette Cooper, has now confirmed that the South West‘s allocation of increased Government funding for new social home-building will rise by 50% - the biggest increase for any part of the country.

In announcing a 38% Government increase to £10.2 billion of cash to boost affordable housing, the minister has ring-fenced £780 million for the South West – representing the biggest increase for any part of Britain.

According to Martin Willey, co-ordinator of the South West Housing Initiative: “This is superb news, and reflects the urgent signals we have been sending to Government about this region‘s dire housing crisis.

“It is now firmly established that the South West has the country‘s biggest affordability gap between average earnings and average house prices, and the biggest gap between housing need and housing supply”, said Mr Willey.

“Many parts of the region, including rural areas, are already suffering the consequences of the shortage of affordable homes, with both public and private sectors struggling to retain key workers, and local communities struggling to retain their young people”, he added.

The South West Housing Initiative has also been lobbying hard for wider measures to increase the construction of new homes.

“Yvette Cooper has now announced extra cash for local authorities that enable more homes to be built. This new ‘housing & planning delivery grant‘ will be a real help to South West councils, struggling to solve the region‘s housing crisis.

“We have been working with the region‘s local authorities to identify measures enabling them to increase the number of homes being built in their areas. These initiatives are now being adopted and will enable those councils to qualify for this extra funding”, said Mr Willey.

“Even though London and the South East will still get more than half the latest £10.2 billion funding for affordable homes, it is superb news that the South West has, at last, appeared on the Government‘s radar screen as being a ‘special case‘, and won the biggest increase”, he added.

The South West Housing Initiative has also responded to the recent IMF warning that UK house-prices are over inflated, with the potential of a price-crash.

“We are all housing professionals. While we can see a distinct calming of house-price inflation, given recent interest rate rises and concerns about the Northern Rock episode, there is no prospect of a price-plummet while this region continues to have a massive miss-match between the number of people needing homes and the much smaller number of new homes being built”, said Martin Willey.

“The last house-price-crash was accompanied by high numbers of job-losses, high interest rates, and high levels of inflation. Right now, the UK economy remains strong, with sustained low levels of unemployment, interest rates, and inflation”, he added.

ENDS 22nd October 2007

For further information please contact David Sturgess, Sturgess Van Damme, on 01275 349 011 or email david@sturgessvandamme.co.uk