1. Expectations of a �1bn Public Private Partnership to encourage institutional investors into the social housing market were ignored in the Budget. While the Government wants the scheme to go ahead, it proved too complex to pull together in a limited time period. Instead, most of that package is expecte to support the reduced stamp duty of higher priced properties, rather than to build new affordable homes.
2. The Treasury's announcement of funding for an extra 10,000 new homes and �100m to go towards new council house building has been downplayed. �100m is a drop in the ocean - Birmingham City Council alone has increased its prudential borrowing from �2bn to �3bn.
3. Four and a half million people are estimated to need social housing in the UK. At present, we are failing to provide for these people. Current estimates suggest that we need 240,000 new homes a year to meet demand, but there are estimated to be fewer than 80,000 new starts in 2009. If house builders and developers (Barats /Wimpey etc) aren't that inclined to build new homes in the current climate and prefer to mothball sites, then the required affordable portion of that develoment for social housing doesn't get built either.