Affordable housing programme cut
Government cuts to affordable housing and community programmes could affect future artists' studio provision.
Details of housing and community programmes cut as part of the £1.166bn local government contribution to the £6.2bn deficit have been announced, including a £100m slash to the National Affordable Housing Programme.
Funding reductions were announced by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles - further programmes to be cut this year include: the Working Neighbourhood Fund (£49.9m), Local Enterprise Growth Initiative (£17.5m), Prevent (£7m) and Housing Market Renewal (£50m), Connecting Communities (£19.1m) and Kickstart (£5m) and the Housing and Planning Delivery Grant (£146m).
The National Housing Federation is warning that affordable housing building could 'grind to a halt' this year. And claims the Government is considering scrapping 'Secton 106' agreements, which stipulate a number of social housing units in private developments.
Artists' studio providers, such as Acme and ASC, have benefitted from Section 106 agreements in a number of artist studio developments (See NFASP Case Studies in our Resources section).
Eric Pickles confirmed that no local authority will face reductions in their revenue grant of more than 2 per cent and that the £20bn general grant to local government would not be reduced.
For full details of all the cuts from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), which will also cut 10% of its operational costs, can be read at:
www.communities.gov.uk
Read more on the cuts to affordable housing on the National Housing Federation's website:
www.housing.org.uk
More press articles:
"Cuts threaten huge slump in affordable new homes" reports The Guardian newspaper on 13 June. The National Housing Federation, representing England's housing associations, has predicted a catastrophic combination of financial cutbacks and changes to the planing system. A slump as much as 65% in new affordable homes, is expected.
Read the full report here: www.guardian.co.uk
Date posted: 15th June 2010