Frozen North will perish in funding gap

Unjust formula hits hopes for housing

YORKSHIRE AND the rest of northern England are being “frozen out” of vital home-building schemes because of funding criteria which favour London and the South-East, housing experts have warned the Government.

Rules designed to tackle the over-heating housing market around the capital mean the vast majority of northern councils are not eligible to bid for 80 per cent of funds handed out by government agency Homes England to help them build new homes.

Ahead of next week’s Budget speech by Chancellor and Yorkshire MP Rishi Sunak, housing associations across northern England have teamed up to call for the ‘80:20 rule’ to be scrapped.

Homes For The North (H4N), which represents 17 housing associations across the region, says the North’s share of funding to help deliver new homes could be slashed by 50 per cent unless a new approach to distribution of investment is taken.

And Prime Minister Boris Johnson is being warned that the North will struggle to fulfil its potential and deliver his ‘levellingup agenda’ unless it gets its fair share of funding to build badlyneeded new homes.

As part of a campaign backed by a number of northern MPs, councils and business groups, H4N has urged Ministers to look again at rules which it says are “rigged against the North”.

It adds: “The North is being frozen out of Homes England investment in new homes. A specific spending guideline is in danger of directing money away from the North and into overheated housing markets in the South-East.

“Government can make a simple change to spending rules that would result in much more money being available to renew communities across the North.”

As an example it cites the £2.3bn Housing Infrastructure Fund designed to help build up to 100,000 homes, which has seen just £23.4m handed out to the entire Yorkshire and the Humber region so far and some poorer areas such as Bradford and Hull miss out entirely. But North Kent has received £219m from the same scheme despite having a much smaller population.

The focus on tackling ‘affordability’ pressures means poorer areas are largely being excluded from funding, says H4N.

Sheffield MP Clive Betts, the chair of the Commons housing select committee who has previously criticised the shift in housing need from the North of England to the South, said: “The North has the capacity, it has the land and it has the ability. Let’s get on and build the homes.”

A Government spokesman said: “We’re determined to level up across the regions and build the homes this country needs, and we’re working with northern leaders and authorities to ensure more people can achieve their dream of home ownership.”