Ian McDermott, chair of housing association Peabody, suggested reclassifying social housing as critical national infrastructure to unlock substantial funding. He argued that the current situation, with most spending on temporary accommodation, needed readdressing. As the UK's housing situation worsens, with major providers advocating for more government investment, the housing secretary undergoes significant pressure to secure better funding arrangements. The integration of housing into fiscal rules could alleviate constraints on budgets, permitting more robust investments in affordable housing solutions across the country, particularly affecting urban areas like London.
If housing was included, it would make it easier for spending on it to be excluded from normal fiscal rules, as it would be categorised as investment in infrastructure.
For too long, social housing has been seen as a subsidy and a cost rather than an asset and critical national infrastructure for the country.
The letter from London-based associations including L&Q, Peabody, Clarion Housing and Notting Hill Genesis said: It is important to be honest about the scale of the problems and the solutions needed.
McDermott warned that 90% of current spending on social housing was on subsidies and temporary accommodation, rather than bricks and mortar, the reverse of what had been the case in the 1970s.
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