Following the Chancellor’s Budget statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday 22nd April 2009, this is a summary of the issues relating to the housing/construction sector.

Social Housing

New Build Announcements

• £400 million to kick start stalled private housing developments by reducing up front costs with equity, gap and infrastructure funding.

• £100 million of new funding for Local Authorities to deliver new social housing at higher energy efficiency standards.

Also

• £150 million additional investment for the social housing rented programme.

Refurbishment

• £120 million brought forward to 2009-10 financial year estimated to improve 12,000 homes to Decent Homes Standard.

Also

• A further £50 million for Armed Forces accommodation towards rebuild and upgrades.

Regeneration

• £180 million will be spent on ‘critical regeneration’ through the Homes & Communities Agency and Regional Development Agencies.  This funding has not been defined further.

General

• Extension of the “Stamp Duty Holiday” on properties costing up to £175,000 to the end of 2009.

• Delay implementation of the Community Infrastructure Levy until 6^th April 2010.

PFI

• The Government will provide temporary support for PFI projects, including those for housing and education, until market conditions improve, through a public sector infrastructure debt-financing unit.

City Regions

• The Budget announced the first two pilot City Regions will be created in Greater Manchester and Leeds.  They will be overseen by Ministers and will develop strategy-setting powers in partnership with the Regional Development Agencies and Homes & Communities Agency amongst others.

Education

Schools

• £800 million will be brought forward to 2009-10 in the priority schools capital programmes.

• BSF will move away from the “wave” model, to a “rolling” model for schools currently discussing projects with Partnerships for Schools.  These will then join the programme as resources allow and only once Partnerships for Schools assess the school is ready to proceed.

Further Education

• £442 million of funding has been accelerated from 2010/11 to 2008/09 and 2009/10, as announced in the 2008 Pre-Budget Report.  This included £200 million for higher education building projects and £110 million for the Building Colleges for the Future programme.                                                      

• The 2009 Budget has now announced an additional £300 million of capital funding to be spent between 2009-2011 to fund a limited number of new Further Education Colleges.

• £100 million brought forward for upgrading 600 GP surgeries to commence summer 2009.

Energy Efficiency

• Budget 2009 appears to ‘double count’ a number of expenditure items, therefore the announcement of £100 million ‘extra’ to improve the insulation for 150,000 homes in the social housing sector through the Decent Homes Standard programme, may also have been included within the refurbishment announcement.

• £65 million of new funding for loans to install energy efficiency measures in public buildings will be targeted at schools, hospitals and other public sector buildings.

Renewable & Community Energy

• There is a U.K. target of 15% of energy being from renewable resources by 2020.  Therefore, more investment is required in small-scale renewable energy technologies (such as solar power and heat pumps) and community heating schemes.

• Budget 2009 has announced an additional £45 million for small-scale renewable projects primarily through the Low-Carbon Buildings Programme, and £25 million in funding for low-carbon community heating schemes.