The West Yorkshire Housing Partnership has joined housing leaders from across the North in calling on the Chancellor to back housing-led regeneration in the Autumn Budget.
We’ve supported a joint letter to the Chancellor setting out measures that could help unlock 500,000 good-quality homes, support thriving communities and drive economic growth across the North.
The letter forms part of the Northern Housing Consortium’s #RenewTheNorth campaign and calls for the funding and flexibility needed to tackle some of the biggest barriers to regeneration, from renewing ageing homes to bringing brownfield land back into use.
Rachael Dennis, Chair of the West Yorkshire Housing Partnership, said:
“West Yorkshire’s future growth depends on housing-led regeneration. New transport infrastructure and strategic growth corridors can unlock opportunity across the region, but without investment in housing and place they will never realise their full potential.
“We need a long-term commitment to regeneration that allows partners to renew ageing housing, bring brownfield land back into productive use and create thriving communities around key growth locations in Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, Kirklees and Calderdale.
“Housing is not simply a consequence of growth; it is the infrastructure that enables it. The Chancellor now has an opportunity to provide the funding and flexibility needed to deliver regeneration at the scale our communities require.”
The joint letter is backed by the Northern Housing Consortium, Homes for the North and housing partnerships representing all four of Yorkshire’s devolved areas, including West Yorkshire.
It calls on the Government to make regeneration a central part of the Autumn Budget and give councils, housing associations and Mayoral Strategic Authorities more tools to deliver it.
The proposals include:
- giving Mayors and combined authorities greater flexibility to use Social and Affordable Homes Programme funding for regeneration
- changing Homes England performance measures so that renewing and replacing homes is recognised alongside building new ones
- allocating National Housing Bank funding specifically for housing-led regeneration
- creating a new Centre for Regeneration in the North
- extending the National Housing Delivery Fund to ten years to help unlock brownfield land
- providing northern Mayors and combined authorities with £500m a year in devolved, flexible funding to support locally led regeneration.
The Northern Housing Consortium’s Renew inquiry found that financial viability is one of the biggest barriers to regeneration in the North. Lower land and property values can make schemes harder to deliver, whether that means replacing social housing that has reached the end of its life, developing brownfield land or creating new homes in town and city centres.
Its research estimates that housing-led regeneration could unlock 500,000 good-quality homes, including more than 100,000 new homes in town and city centres, 320,000 homes on brownfield land and the renewal or replacement of 100,000 social homes.
Tracy Harrison, Chief Executive of the Northern Housing Consortium, said:
“The Prime Minister has put housing, devolution and regeneration at the top of his agenda. The opportunity at the Budget and beyond is to make sure those ambitions are matched by the funding and policy framework needed to deliver regeneration.”