It’s a question that lies at the nub of Grant Shapps’ plans – announced today – for rewarding areas where more homes are built.
Mr Shapps has promised a “crystal-clear” incentive system whereby councils will for six years receive matched funding for any new council tax revenue generated from the building of extra homes.
The answer is that the money comes from a shuffling around of existing funds from within the giant Revenue Grant account (which involves about £29bn of council spending each year).
The scheme is Mr Shapps’ answer to all of the housebuilders which are concerned about the ending of regional housing targets and fear that houses now won’t get built.
(Incidentally their fears are shared by other groups including engineering organisations, transport groups and environmentalists such as the WWF and RSPB, as you can see from this letter, signed by 30 groups, which has prompted some anger within Mr Pickles’ private office.)
But there is no net new money: as John Healey, shadow housing minister, says: “We could quite literally see government robbing Peterborough to pay Poole.”
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey
