The announcement also confirms that social rents that are below 'target rents' will be allowed to rise gradually over coming years - but we're still waiting on conformation on how fast they can rise. The sector has been calling for £3/week (on top of the CPI+1%).

The Housing Forum urges Government to implement the new funding streams as soon as possible to give the supply chain the continuity of work needed to build capacity.
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/696f8a...

4) A new Warm Homes Agency will oversee consumer protections and drive up quality.

3) There's high ambitions for heat networks, to generate 20% of our heat by 2025, and doubling from current rates by 2035.

2) The Warm Homes Scheme Social Housing Fund will continue until 2027, but will then be integrated with the funds for low income homeowners, with a shift toward area-based delivery.

1) The focus is moving away from solid wall installation (judged to be poor value for money with non-compliance problems) and towards electrification - solar PV, batteries and heat pumps.

Details here: www.gov.uk/guidance/bui...

Our members report that the lack of first time buyers who can afford to purchase is currently a major barrier to building new homes. We therefore welcome this review into mortgage lending practice.

Congratulations to
@lb-southwark.bsky.social, @lewisham.gov.uk, @haringeyboroughfc.bsky.social, @lfb-walthamforest.bsky.social mforest.bsky.social
and @citywestminster.bsky.social for topping the table this year! This is a real success, against very challenging financial circumstances.

3) Improving housing quality:
- Removal of VAT from retrofitting, regeneration and fire safety work undertaken by social landlords
- New funding to cover costs of meeting higher energy efficiency standards or the new Decent Homes Standard.
housingforum.org.uk/campaigns/th...

2) Support for the wider housing sector:
- Adequate resourcing for the Building Safety Regulator
- Rethinking planned changes to landfill tax which could add £25k to the cost of building a new home
- Tax changes to support the for-profit RP and Build-to-Rent sectors
- First time buyer support

The Housing Forum welcomes this consultation - many of these ideas are ones we've been calling for, in our paper on Streamlining Planning - housingforum.org.uk/wp-content/u...
It is important to strike the right balance between consultation and streamlining planning to build more homes.

The GLA allocates is own share of the grant for London. And announced today, six northern mayors will also £7bn between them to allocate. (Greater Manchester, West Midlands, North East, West Yorkshire, Liverpool City Region and South Yorkshire)

The key recommendations on Land Value Capture were:
1 ) New template clauses for S106 agreements
2) Reinstate funded Level 7 planning apprenticeships for students over 21
3) Dispute resolution for deadlocked negotiations between LAs and developers
4) Publish updated land value estimates data