CIH’s submission to the Chancellor’s March 2022 Budget

The level of housing need is increasing. Many households face huge challenges in accessing affordable, decent homes. The latest annual forecasts by the housing charity Crisis and Heriot-Watt University show the number of people homeless in England is predicted to jump by a third by 2024 unless action is taken to reverse this. The need to decarbonise our housing stock is more urgent than ever - we have the oldest and least energy efficient housing stock in Europe. As the country emerges from a pandemic and heads into a cost-of-living crisis, exacerbated by the tragic conflict in Ukraine, rising energy prices mean one in three households are at risk of fuel poverty.

We need urgent action to decarbonise the residential sector, invest in support for those who need it and finance new social and affordable housing. Without this, the ambition to ‘level up’ risks being undermined.

In our full submission to the Chancellor’s March 2022 Spring Budget, we are calling on government to:

1. Provide enough help with housing costs so people can access an affordable, decent place to call home and restore the £20 uplift for people on universal credit to ease the pressures of fuel poverty
2. Bring forward investment with clear, long-term plans to tackle homes with poor energy efficiency
3. Invest in a long-term strategy to end homelessness in all its forms and provide good quality temporary accommodation
4. Invest in existing and new supported housing to meet a range of support needs.
5. Increase grant levels to provide the number of homes at social rents we need each year. 

Download our full submission