20.02.20
Northern Housing Consortium calls for government action
The Northern Housing Consortium (NHC) has called for government action to ‘level-up’ housing in the North as new study highlights disproportionate cut-backs in northern councils.
The scale of housing cut-backs in northern councils has been made clear in research launched today (Feb 20) by NHC. The research was carried out by academics at the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE) and shows the impact of spending reductions since 2010, leading to significant loss of housing and planning capacity in the North.
Evidence gathered from the study shows that the average net spend on housing in Northern councils has fallen by 54% since 2010/11 with the rest of England only experiencing a 34% reduction.
The NHC is calling on government to increase local funding ahead of the upcoming Budget and Spending Review and a three-point plan to support their request:
- a sustained real-terms increase in local government funding,
- a national centre of specialist expertise located in the North and open to all,
- place-based outcome-focused deals that rebuild local capacity.
NHC Chief Executive, Tracy Harrison said:
“Our northern council members have had to be creative to deliver on their housing aspirations whilst under huge pressure due to cuts in their resources. Councils that have been able to retain some capacity have deployed this to boost the supply and quality of homes in their area. We are ambitious to do more right across the North but to do this councils need a commitment from Government to level-up funding.”
Tracy recently joined us on a PSE Podcast to discuss housing in the North and disparity between North and South.
Listen Now.