Britain’s government announced details on Monday of almost £10 billion ($13.63 billion) in funding for the construction of lower-cost housing for renters with a focus on London, one of the areas hit hardest by the country’s shortage of homes.
More than £7 billion – the first tranche of a previously announced £39 billion in funding over 10 years – was earmarked for the capital where local authorities were expected to deliver over half the new homes, the government said.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who moved into Downing Street in July, has promised to build more social rent homes, which offer tenants a discount of around 50% to market rates. He says the move will reduce the long-term welfare bill and homelessness as well as provide security to people on lower incomes.
“Councils built this country out of a housing crisis once before. Backed properly, and trusted to get on with it, they will do it again,” Burnham said in a statement.
Over time, more than £16 billion of the total 10-year funding plan will be allocated outside London, the government said.
It did not provide an estimate for the total number of homes likely to be built with the first wave of financing because London’s allocation has yet to be split between councils in the capital. Around 20,000 new homes in northern English cities were likely to be financed in the first wave.
The government said the house-building programme would advance another policy priority of Burnham – devolution – by giving mayoral authorities the power to set strategic direction in their areas.
($1 = 0.7335 pounds)
(Writing by William Schomberg）
