Not Such Affordable Housing

The Governments scheme to build houses for key workers has come under criticism from the Public Accounts Committee.

The conclusion of the report highlights the lack of information an apparent lack of co-ordination and management.

The headline findings are listed below:

• Information on the impact of the assistance on local housing markets is scarce.
• The Department does not know how many people who part-purchase can afford to purchase outright at some stage or how long it takes to do so.
• In 2004-05 only 15% of those taking advantage of assistance were previously social housing tenants and the others helped were not normally in priority housing need.
• Some Registered Social Landlords do not consider the housing need of applicants for assistance
• If Registered Social Landlords had encouraged all beneficiaries in 2004-05 to buy as large a share of a property as they could safely afford, an additional £63 million could have been available to help 3,420 additional households.
• In 2004-05 low cost home ownership assistance mainly went to households with incomes over £25,000, while most new social housing tenants had household incomes of less than £20,000.
• The impact of helping key public sector employees through low cost home ownership assistance is not analysed separately from the effects of other measures public sector employers have been taking to improve retention.
• The Department lacks information on the take-up rates for key worker assistance at individual institutions, such as police stations or hospitals, and on the reasons for any variations in these rates.
• From April 2006, key public sector workers who receive assistance by sole virtue of their employment are required to repay this assistance if they leave eligible employment.
• The new arrangements for funding the Open Market HomeBuy product mean that private lenders rather than the affordable housing sector will benefit from any rises in the equity value of homes bought with assistance.
• Registered Social Landlords have made substantial gains from their involvement in low cost home ownership but some have been slow to reinvest these gains in affordable housing.
• Registered Social Landlords' equity stakes in low cost home ownership properties are currently valued at potentially between £610 million and £720 million.

There appears to be a few questions needing answers...