Government ‘unable to spend’ £1.9bn allotted to sort out housing disaster

Billions of kilos allotted to sort out Britain’s housing disaster has been returned to the Treasury as a result of the housing division was unable to search out tasks to fund.

Figures launched below the Freedom of Information Act present the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) was unable to search out tasks for the £1.9bn of funding budgeted for 2022-23.

This quantities to a 3rd of DLUHC’s housing funds, and contains £255m meant to fund new reasonably priced properties and £245m meant to assist enhancements to constructing security following the Grenfell Tower fireplace, based on the figures first revealed by the Guardian.

The failure to spend cash is probably going due partially to rising rates of interest and uncertainty within the housing market making it tough to search out tasks to fund.

Around £1.2bn earmarked for Help to Buy was additionally handed again within the final yr of the scheme’s operation as a consequence of lower-than-expected demand.

When departments fail to spend cash budgeted for a given yr, they’ll “reprofile” the spending into future years.

DLUHC has completed this with one other £363m that was meant to be spent on reasonably priced properties in 2022-23 however will now be spent in 2023-24.

The cash should be surrendered to the Treasury if the spending is delayed past the subsequent spending assessment, which may are available 2024.

Lisa Nandy, Labour’s shadow housing secretary, mentioned: “This completely beggars perception. We are in the midst of an acute housing disaster, even the Housing Secretary says the system is ‘damaged’, and but the Government was unable to spend a 3rd of its housing funds.

“The Tories have simply given up.”

A DLUHC spokesperson mentioned: “These are multi-year funding programmes that are being spent flexibly – meaning some money can be moved into future years depending on demand and the wider economic climate.”

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The Government missed its goal of constructing 300,000 new properties yearly in 2022 by round 100,000.

But campaigners worry a current resolution to scrap housing targets means the Government will wrestle to maintain its promise.