Jamie Carpenter,
Regeneration & Renewal,
6 July 2009
The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) will reveal which of its programmes' budgets will be plundered to part-fund a £1.5 billion housing package before Parliament rises for summer recess later this month.
The DCLG has been asked to provide £690 million towards the package, announced by the Prime Minister last week, which will fund a raft of measures designed to provide 20,000 affordable homes over the next two years (see Physical Regeneration News, p7).
DCLG executive director of housing Bernadette Kelly suggested that national regeneration quango the Homes & Communities Agency (HCA) may bear the brunt of any budget raids.
She said: "We will have to look at our own capital expenditure programmes in the DCLG, the majority of which are administered through the HCA."
HCA chief executive Sir Bob Kerslake said: "We will look at our existing programmes and look to see ... how we can achieve efficiency savings." But he added: "We'll be able to do it in a way that minimises the impact on major programmes."
Richard McCarthy, the DCLG's director-general of housing and planning, insisted that press reports that the Decent Homes programme would be plundered to fund the package were untrue. He added that the department would reveal details of which of its programme's budgets would be diverted before Parliament's summer break begins on 21 July.
A Treasury spokesman said that other departments, including the Home Office and the Department for Transport, will find cash to fund more than half the cost of the package from capital underspends (see box).
Cost to departments
Where the £1.5 billion for new affordable housing is coming from:
- £690 million from the Department for Communities and Local Government.
- £350 million from the Department for Transport.
- £240 million from the Department of Health.
- £200 million from the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
- £90 million from the Home Office.
Source: HM Treasury
