UK Inquiry Tracker

Starter Homes

Public Accounts Committee Closed Inquiry

Opened: 17 Sep 2020 Closed: 25 Mar 2021 Parliament page

In April 2015, the Conservative Party manifesto committed to “200,000 Starter Homes, which will be sold at a 20% discount and will be built exclusively for first-time buyers under the age of 40”. The November 2015 Spending Review subsequently provided £2.3 billion to support the delivery of 60,000 Starter Homes, … Read more In April 2015, the Conservative Party manifesto committed to “200,000 Starter Homes, which will be sold at a 20% discount and will be built exclusively for first-time buyers under the age of 40”. The November 2015 Spending Review subsequently provided £2.3 billion to support the delivery of 60,000 Starter Homes, of the 200,000 previously announced. Between 2015 and 2018, government’s policy towards Starter Homes shifted. In May 2018, the Minister of State for Housing and Planning stated that the government had spent an estimated £250 million of the Starter Homes Land Fund, but in July 2018, the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) clarified that it had spent £250 million buying land to build affordable properties from two funds, the Starter Homes Land Fund and the Land Assembly Fund, with work under way to get the land ready for development, but that building had not yet started – and not one home has yet been built. The Government now has an “ambition” to build 300,000 new homes a year from the mid-2020s – but despite the hundreds of millions of pounds spent, the fate of the 200,000 Starter Homes pledged in the 2015 Conservative manifesto is unclear. Key findings of the NAO report on the Starter Homes project : - No Starter Homes have been built to date. The funding originally intended for Starter Homes has instead been spent on acquiring and preparing brownfield sites for housing more generally, some of which is expected to be affordable housing - MHCLG expected to introduce the legislation and planning guidance required for Starter Homes in 2019 but it is yet to lay the regulations in Parliament. - The Department no longer has a budget dedicated to the delivery of Starter Homes. After the 2015 manifesto pledge, the housing white paper in 2017 shifted housing policy. The original target of 200,000 Starter Homes morphed into a target to help 200,000 households into home ownership through a range of government-backed schemes. - The November 2017 Autumn Budget reallocated the funding earmarked for Starter Homes to the £9 billion Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme and the Land Assembly Fund (LAF). - Between 2015-16 and 2017-18, the Department spent almost £174 million preparing sites originally intended for building Starter Homes – though no Starter Homes have been built on that land. In 2016-17 and 2017-18, the Department spent £151 million under the Starter Homes Land Fund (SHLF), but that spending also has not supported the building of Starter Homes. Instead, the Department used the SHLF to acquire and remediate suitable land, to then sell on to developers. In July of this year, after the UK’s Covid lockdown exposed and exacerbated the shortage of affordable housing in the UK, the Government announced new, sweeping reforms to the building planning regulations. It is not clear how this impacts or interacts with the Government’s previous targets, allocated and re-allocated, and spent funding, intended to build affordable new homes. In October, the Committee will question senior MHCLG officials on what is happening with plans to address the affordable housing crisis. If you have evidence on the issues raised in this inquiry please submit it here by Thursday 15 October. Show less

6 Recommendations

14 Conclusions

1 Report

1 Oral session

1 Letter

1 Event

Activity timeline 4 events

13 Jul
2021

Correspondence

Correspondence from Gordon More, Interim Chief, Executive Homes England, re Public Accounts Committee: Starter Homes Inquiry – Affordable H…

24 Mar
2021

Report published

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirty first report from Session 2019-21

9 Dec
2020

Report published

Thirty-first Report - Starter Homes

22 Oct
2020

Oral evidence

Stater Homes

Oral evidence sessions 1 session

22 Oct 2020

View on parliament.uk

Stater Homes

Jeremy Pocklington · Ministry of Defence Nick Walkley · Homes England Tracey Waltho · Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Title	HC No.	Published	Items	Response
Thirty-first Report - Starter Homes	HC 88	9 Dec 2020	20	Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

6 results

3 Recommendation Rejected

Thirty-first Report - Starter Homes

We are disappointed that the Department remains unable or unwilling to clarify how it will...

We are disappointed that the Department remains unable or unwilling to clarify how it will achieve its ambition of 300,000 new homes per year by the mid-2020s. We are wearily familiar with the Department’s lack of clarity over how it … Read more

Government Response

The government explicitly rejects the recommendation to clarify how various housing schemes contribute to the 300,000 homes ambition and to provide a detailed assessment of home types and tenures within three months. It asserts its transparency through published plans and quarterly data, outlining general efforts and investment.

HM Treasury

View details

10 Recommendation Rejected

Thirty-first Report - Starter Homes

We have previously challenged the Department on its detailed plans and projections for how it...

We have previously challenged the Department on its detailed plans and projections for how it would achieve its target of building 300,000 new homes per year by the mid- 2020s, most recently in our report Planning and the broken housing … Read more

Government Response

The government explicitly disagreed with the recommendation to publicly set out a full plan and year-on-year projections for achieving the 300,000 new homes target, asserting its ongoing transparency and progress through existing plans and funding.

HM Treasury

View details

11 Conclusion Rejected

Thirty-first Report - Starter Homes

We were disappointed that the Department remained unwilling to clarify how it will achieve this...

We were disappointed that the Department remained unwilling to clarify how it will achieve this rate of building, which it now refers to as an ambition rather than a target. We asked why it thought that there should not be … Read more

Government Response

The government rejects the committee's implied criticism of its lack of clarity, asserting its transparency through published plans and quarterly data. It highlights significant progress in home delivery and outlines various funding and policy reforms supporting the 300,000 homes ambition.

HM Treasury

View details

12 Conclusion Rejected

Thirty-first Report - Starter Homes

The Department explained how its reforms to the planning system were intended to speed up...

The Department explained how its reforms to the planning system were intended to speed up building and, through increasing certainty with the system, encourage more small and medium-sized developers to build homes. It told us that it was also looking … Read more

Government Response

The government explicitly disagreed with the (misidentified) recommendation, asserting it is already transparent about its housing objectives and progress, and highlighted existing funding for housing and planned reforms.

HM Treasury

View details

17 Conclusion Rejected

Thirty-first Report - Starter Homes

We asked the Department how it would ensure that its approach delivered the right kind...

We asked the Department how it would ensure that its approach delivered the right kind of homes in the right places.44 We heard from the Department about a range of other actions it is pursuing: • It wants its planning … Read more

Government Response

The government explicitly disagreed with the (misidentified) recommendation, stating it is transparent about its housing objectives and progress, and highlighted existing funding and reforms, including the Planning for the Future White Paper, aimed at increasing housing supply.

HM Treasury

View details

18 Conclusion Rejected

Thirty-first Report - Starter Homes

We queried why student accommodation and converted offices count, in the Department’s statistics, as new...

We queried why student accommodation and converted offices count, in the Department’s statistics, as new housing when student accommodation is not necessarily a permanent home, and many office conversions are tiny, lack proper insulation, and could not be said to … Read more

Government Response

The government explicitly disagreed with the (misidentified) recommendation, explaining that student accommodation and converted offices are legitimately included in official 'Net Additional Dwelling Statistics' as they contribute to housing supply.

HM Treasury

View details

Government Response AI assessment · 19 of 6 classified

Accepted 7

Accepted in Part 1

Acknowledged 1

Not Addressed 4

Rejected 6

Total 6 recs + 14 conclusions

Correspondence 1 letter

13 Jul 2021 Correspondence from Gordon More, Interim Chief, Executive Homes England, re Public Accounts Committee: Starter Homes Inquiry – Affordable Housing Statistics, dated 30 June 2021

Parliament page