Today’s Pre Budget Report by the Chancellor of the Exchequer gives the clearest indication yet that housing will continue to be squeezed in the fight for a share of public spending over the next few years. Health, education and policing appear to be the only areas of Government policy with guarantees of public expenditure growth.

The housing sector can take some crumbs of comfort with the Government’s decision to maintain its high levels of public borrowing through to the end of 2011 to safeguard public services and support the economy. The decision means that Government will continue to honour its housing pledge to build 112,000 affordable homes over two years and extend, by six months, the Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) scheme which helps homeowners who have experienced a fall in income to remain in their homes.

However, the stamp duty holiday which has helped 240,000 new homeowners will end at the end of the year and a further housing supply stimulus package appears to be limited to bringing forward £100 million in 2010/2011 to unlock stalled housing sites.

Some of the most needy and vulnerable people in society will benefit from today’s announcements to improve home heating and insulation. However, the estimated 200,000 people this may help fall a long way short of the estimated 7.6 million non decent homes in England alone.

Sarah Webb, CIH Chief Executive said: "There are some helpful measures announced today and we should recognise Government efforts and success to stabilise the housing market. The reduction of 6.1 per cent to 3.1 per cent for average rent increases in 2010/2011 for local authority tenants will also make a difference to millions of people.

"However, there are now some real dangers that the recession will derail the excellent progress we were making to improve housing policy in key areas. An improved role for the private rented sector, a decent homes 2 programme, addressing carbon emissions from our 26 million homes – accounting for over a quarter of all of the UK’s output - and the creation of a more stable and sustainable housing market, which is less reliant on the boom and bust of house price inflation, could all now be at risk.

"We hope housing professionals will support CIH in the coming months, as we approach the next election, to send a loud and clear message to all politicians of the need to invest in housing."

*ENDS*

News release issued on behalf of the CIH by Jill Dwyer, CIH Press Office, Octavia House, Westwood Way, Coventry CV4 8JP. Telephone: 02476 851780 or 07786 716961. Email: press@cih.org.

Notes to Editors:

1. The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) is the professional body for people involved in housing and communities. We are a registered charity and not-for-profit organisation. We have a diverse and growing membership of over 22,000 – both in the public and private sectors – living and working in over 20 countries on five continents across the world. Our members work for local authorities, housing associations, Arms Length Management Organisations, Government bodies, educational establishments and the private sector. Many tenants and residents are also members. We exist to maximise the contribution that housing professionals make to the wellbeing of communities. Further information is available at: www.cih.org 

2. The Chancellor’s speech is available here: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/prebud_pbr09_speech.htm 

3. The full Pre Budget Report is available here: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/news/nol/shared/spl/hi/uk_politics/09/budget/09_12_09budget_document.pdf 

4. A CIH briefing on the Pre-Budget Report is available by downloading the document below: