The British Government will be investing 2 billion pounds to address an affordable housing shortage, said Theresa May. Building homes have been a stated priority as the government has been trying for the past few years to address the public issues of shortage of affordable housing in many areas. There has been a growing concern that prices of homes have risen faster than the income.
The government is expected to provide funding for housing associations for non- profits, which mostly provide the maximum number of affordable homes in the United Kingdom. The new funding was to be allocated over a period of up to 10 years, which is much longer than the usual three to four period. The move has been lauded by the National Housing Federation.
PM May said that the funding would give the people the stability they need and it would get thousands of social homes built, where they are needed the most. It would also provide the leverage needed to build many more. Many feel that this is PM May’s way of showing that the British Government is working on more than Brexit, as Britain prepares to leave the European Union next year in March.
The long term allocation of funding is going to generate greater confidence in the housing associations who till now were often unsure about the future of their funding and which resulted in arbitrary usage of funds, rather than making long term plans, which were the need of the hour. Chief of housing federations are content with the ministers have dealt with the issue. PM May has also opined that the housing associations should use their unique status and rich history to transform the way tenants and society as a whole would view social housing and do away with the stigma attached to them as well as with the people who reside in them.
