The Government has announced £450m of cuts to housing in 2010/11, which will threaten funding for 1,452 new homes in London. Of those, 186 would be homes for low cost ownership, 142 would be housing association homes for social rent and 194 would be new council homes. The Mayor said at a Big Society event at City Hall that it would be "insane" to cut funding for affordable housing.
Green Party Assembly Member, Darren Johnson, commented:
"The first round of unnecessary and unfair cuts threatens 1,452 affordable homes for Londoners. The government has picked the Mayor’s pockets before he can deliver his promised 50,000 affordable homes.
"The Comprehensive Spending Review in October will almost certainly hit affordable housing even harder. If the Mayor believes cuts to housing are ‘insane’, it’s time he argued for fairer taxation instead of swingeing cuts that could send our rents, mortgage costs and the housing benefit bill spiralling further upwards."
Notes to editors
Full details of the cuts and the schemes threatened can be found on the HCA web site: http://www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/public/documents/HCA_briefing_note_6_July_2010.pdf