To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to his Department's explanatory memorandum to its Supplementary Estimate 2017-18, what assessment he has made of the effect on affordable housing of surrendering £52m for build to rent in 2017-18.
Answered on
8 March 2018
The Build to Rent Fund was closed to new applications in 2016. At the 2017/18 Supplementary Estimate, the following budget profile was agreed in order to provide for loans to be drawn down under existing loan agreements under the Fund:
Year | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | Grand Total |
Gross budget | 150,000 | 0 | 0 | 150,000 |
Prospective developers of housing built for rent may also apply to my Department for support under the Home Building Fund, which became operational in 2016.
In addition, our private rented sector housing debt guarantee scheme has approved approximately £1.5 billion of transactions. Government funding and guarantees are just one source of investment for the Build to Rent sector. Knight Frank, a real estate consultancy firm, estimated that £25 billion had been invested in the sector in total (UK figure) as of 2017.
The Build to Rent Fund is a loan fund made available in order to support and encourage investment in the build-to-rent housing sector. The fund received more financial transaction income in 17/18 than expected. In line with good financial management of public funds, this allowed the Department to return £52 million of funding back to HMT. The surrender has no impact on the delivery of affordable housing.