Fewer affordable homes were built in the past year than any time in the past 24 years, while there was a 52% fall in the supply of new homes in just 12 months.
Builders put the finishing touches to 32,110 affordable homes in England in the year to the end of March 2016, compared with 66,600 over the previous year, according to figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).
Of those, just 6,550 – about 20% – were for social rent, which critics say is the only truly affordable housing tenure, with the rest made available to rent or buy at “affordable” rates of up to 80% of market value.
Critics said the figures were disastrous, and called on the government to do more to encourage house building. They come as the proportion of households that own a property is at a 30-year low and rising house prices have driven the cost of buying a home to more than 10 times the average salary in a third of England and Wales.
Yet despite this crisis for the majority of the country's residents, its good to see that we are looking after some of our old folk and making sure that there home is fit to live in.
The Queen has been awarded a 66% pay rise to fund a £369m 10-year refit of Buckingham Palace designed to future-proof the ageing building, it has been announced.
Theresa May, Philip Hammond and the Queen’s keeper of the privy purse, Sir Alan Reid, who are the royal trustees, agreed that the temporary pay increase was the best way to pay for urgent repairs.
The major refit, which has been described as essential, will see miles of ageing cables, lead pipes, electrical wiring and boilers replaced, some for the first time in 60 years. Officials said an independent, specialist report had concluded that without urgent work “there is a risk of serious damage to the palace and the precious royal collection items it houses from, amongst other scenarios, fire and water damage”.
The money will come from a 66% increase in the sovereign grant – the funding formula under which the Queen normally receives 15% of the annual profit from the crown estate. She will now receive 25% for the 10 years the work is taking place. When it is finished in 2027, the grant should be returned to 15%, the royal trustees said.
Builders put the finishing touches to 32,110 affordable homes in England in the year to the end of March 2016, compared with 66,600 over the previous year, according to figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).
Of those, just 6,550 – about 20% – were for social rent, which critics say is the only truly affordable housing tenure, with the rest made available to rent or buy at “affordable” rates of up to 80% of market value.
Critics said the figures were disastrous, and called on the government to do more to encourage house building. They come as the proportion of households that own a property is at a 30-year low and rising house prices have driven the cost of buying a home to more than 10 times the average salary in a third of England and Wales.
Yet despite this crisis for the majority of the country's residents, its good to see that we are looking after some of our old folk and making sure that there home is fit to live in.
The Queen has been awarded a 66% pay rise to fund a £369m 10-year refit of Buckingham Palace designed to future-proof the ageing building, it has been announced.
Theresa May, Philip Hammond and the Queen’s keeper of the privy purse, Sir Alan Reid, who are the royal trustees, agreed that the temporary pay increase was the best way to pay for urgent repairs.
The major refit, which has been described as essential, will see miles of ageing cables, lead pipes, electrical wiring and boilers replaced, some for the first time in 60 years. Officials said an independent, specialist report had concluded that without urgent work “there is a risk of serious damage to the palace and the precious royal collection items it houses from, amongst other scenarios, fire and water damage”.
The money will come from a 66% increase in the sovereign grant – the funding formula under which the Queen normally receives 15% of the annual profit from the crown estate. She will now receive 25% for the 10 years the work is taking place. When it is finished in 2027, the grant should be returned to 15%, the royal trustees said.
