Social landlords urged to make do without grants
- 03 Oct
The housing minister is encouraging social landlords to go without government grants and go out to the ‘markets' to fund buildings instead.
Speaking to Inside Housing at the Conservative Party conference this week, Mr Lewis said: "If housing associations want to survive without government funding, that's a good thing."
He said it would be ‘great' if landlords abandon state grant entirely.
"It means that the taxpayer is able to save even more money,'"he said. "And it also means the government can then say "OK, how can we use this money to deliver more homes in another way?""
David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, dismissed the idea that landlords can build submarket housing everywhere without grant as "ridiculous".
He warned that some landlords would stop building homes without capital funding.
Ann Santry, chief executive of 37,500-home Sovereign, said: "Grant stretches what we can do. So if we can get 10% grant, that increases the size of our overall programme and it keeps rents down."
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