Shelter's campaign priorities for the last two years have focused on improving housing benefit, increasing investment in affordable housing and improving rights for homeless people. These were chosen because they were the three key issues we identified, from the experiences of our front-line services, that would make a significant improvement for the people we work with.

Now – after the spending review, the Housing Green Paper and the launch of the national strategy for neighbourhood renewal – the situation has changed. The policy direction for housing for the second term of a Labour Government is clearly set out; the key test is, what difference will these things make on the ground?

The spending review has increased spending on housing by 12 per cent over the next three years, the second biggest increase on any spending area after transport. This is very welcome. Enough money will be made available to implement the Housing Green Paper's aim of bringing all social housing up to standard in the next ten years. This was expected, but the spending review's increase in resources for new build was more of a surprise.

Shelter has argued, based on the experiences of our housing aid centres and projects, and of our research, that an increase in the funding for affordable housing is urgent. Our Housing Investment Project concluded that over 100,000 new affordable homes are needed each year for the next ten years to meet the needs of people current living in unacceptable housing, and the needs of people who will set up home in the future and not be able to afford their housing costs without help.

However, since 1997, the policy debate has been dominated by concerns about falling demand in some parts of the country, evidenced by streets and estates dominated by empty boarded-up homes. But there is another side of the picture. In other parts of England, particularly London and the South East, housing pressures are mounting, fuelled by increasing prices and population pressures, exacerbating existing shortages.

The spending review's announcement that resources for housing associations for new build will double over the next few years is a very welcome step in the right direction. But the new resources will go nowhere near meeting the need for over 100,000 new affordable homes over the next ten years that our research has identified. And, unfortunately, a doubling of resources will not equate to a doubling in the number of units produced. Land prices in the areas of highest need, plus the impact of government policies to keep down rent increases, mean that each pound of extra spending will buy less than spending in the recent past.

The real value of the extra investment will be lost unless these new homes are made available to people in the greatest housing need. The Housing Green Paper, published in April, sets out a series of proposals to improve the safety net for homeless people. For homeless families and vulnerable people, local authorities will be under an indefinite duty to provide housing help, not only required (as at present) to give assistance for two years. 'Priority need' groups – the criteria that state who will receive the greatest level of help from local authorities – are to be extended to include 16 and 17-year-olds and people who are 'vulnerable as a result of institutionalisation', particularly care leavers and people leaving prison.

The Housing Green Paper also promotes a change in the emphasis in the way social housing is to be allocated. It advocates a new emphasis on choice for all households, including homeless people. Moving away from current practices which, at worst, lead to people being dumped in completely unsuitable homes that they cannot sustain, is laudable. However, the details of how vulnerable people, and people with very pressing needs can be helped through a choice-based system need to be resolved through piloting.

These changes, especially when put together with the increase in resources, set out a promising agenda for a second term Labour Government. But to put them into practice, the Government will have to legislate. Improving the safety net for homeless families and vulnerable people was a manifesto commitment in 1997. The Housing Green Paper's proposals go further than this. To make the homelessness package complete, we need to see improvements in the assistance given to single people, strengthening the link between support and housing, and making sure that all local authorities prioritise prevention of homelessness.

Shelter will be lobbying strongly for housing legislation to be given the same level of priority as has been given to housing in the spending plans. The Government has made it clear that, if re-elected, its priority will be to improve service delivery. For its housing agenda, delivery will be dependent on local authorities and housing associations. It will be up to these organisations to get their act together to make sure that the positives are not lost at local level.

Nicola Bacon
Shelter

Poverty 107, Autumn 2000