The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) Committee has held the first evidence session of its inquiry into the finances and sustainability of the social housing sector in England.
The inquiry will be examining the financial pressures facing social landlords and the resources needed to meet a variety of challenges, including the need to build thousands of new homes for social rent and the task of improving social housing stock.
The Committee will question representatives from the National Housing Federation and from housing associations and also a panel of academic experts.
Ahead of the evidence session on Monday, the LUHC Committee has published 69 written evidence submissions (see page linking to all inquiry written evidence submissions) received from a range of groups, including the National Housing Federation, Local Government Association (LGA) and London Councils, housing bodies such as Peabody, Clarion and the Guinness Partnership, also from organisations and businesses such as Crisis, Savills, Lloyds Banking Group and End our Cladding Scandal.
Evidence submissions also include those from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and from the Regulator of Social Housing.
The written evidence submissions cover a range of issues including the financial challenges facing the social housing sector, the impact of social housing providers’ financial decisions on residents, and how the sector is regulated.
In Monday’s evidence session, the cross-party group of MPs will question witnesses on topics relating to the housing association’s financial resilience and how housing associations prioritise refurbishment, remediation and new development work when budgets are tight.
The session is also likely to explore how social and affordable housing is financed through planning obligations and by cross-subsidy from the sale of private and shared-ownership homes. As part of this, MPs will also examine how well the shared-ownership housing model serves both housing associations and residents.
As part of its inquiry, the Committee will be examining the current range of grant funding available and the increasingly complex financial and corporate structures proliferating in the social housing sector.
The Committee’s inquiry will also explore the social housing policy and regulatory challenges faced by the Department for Levelling-Up, Housing and Communities, the Regulator of Social Housing, Homes England and local authorities.
The inquiry follows the LUHC Committee’s ‘Regulation of Social Housing’ report (published in July 2022) which examined the condition of social housing and highlighted the appalling and unsafe conditions of some social homes due to mould, damp, and leaks.
