U.K. Gov't Unveils Affordable Housing Plan*

March 29, 2006

• A new Shared Equity Taskforce designed to increase first-time buyer support and assistance.
• Through the National Affordable Housing Programme (NAHP), investment will be increased £970 million to deliver 35,000 new low cost homes over the next two years to enable first-time buyers to purchase a home. The NAHP also plans to heavily invest in social housing for rent.
• Public sector land will be made available to deliver 30,000 more new homes, as part of an overall plan to eventually deliver 100,000 new homes by way of public sector land.
• An extra homes scheme will be devised to bring sites back into use and build more social housing for rent. The move is designed to potentially reduce housing benefit costs.
• An investment of £50 million will be made to support the microgeneration technology installation, such as wind turbines, for social housing and other buildings to better sustainability development.
• Energy companies will provide subsidised insulation for one quarter million installations to improve the energy efficiency of existing homes.
• The landlords energy savings allowance will be extended to cover hot water system insulation and draught proofing, as an incentive for landlords to boost energy efficiency in the private sector.

The government issued its proposal in response to Kate Barker's Review of Housing Supply report in 2004, which called for house building to increase to 200,000 annually in an effort to satisfy demand, as well as address affordability issues.

Source: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM).

* Headline revised Dec. 6, 2007 for clarification.