I have been told that the National Policy Forum has finally accepted what members of the party have been saying for ages and have decided to allow the so-called ‘level playing field’ for social housing.  In other words, local councils can now apply for Housing Corporation grants under the same terms as housing associations.

I can’t find any confirmation of this though.  The news websites are pre-occupied with trying to stir up speculation about Gordon Brown’s future because they find that sort of thing much more interesting.  The Labour Party website doesn’t mention it either because it is more interested in what Brown said to the NPF than what the NPF said, but it is really good news, and well overdue.

For a long time now councils have been using the fact that other RSLs can get funding under much better terms as an excuse to stop building council houses to replace those lost under right-to-buy legislation- and then using that as an excuse to sell off or transfer what stock they do have left.

Councils now have the opportunity to be in control.  If there is a shortage of affordable housing – for the sake of argument let’s just say housing that somebody on no more than an average wage can afford to live in – they can decide to build some, and make it all affordable.  They do not have to rely on developers building whatever makes the most profit and then begrudgingly putting the bare minimum of whatever percentage is in the local development framework, and they do not have to rely on housing associations over which they will have no direct control.

How many councils will take advantage of this?   The Horsham Labour Party is meeting with Horsham District Council soon to discuss housing andto ask if they will be involved in building much-needed homes for ordinary working people: well, you have to ask don’t you?  I’m not sure that Crawley Borough Council will be interested now.  For years the Labour council wanted to build houses.  It was gagging to build houses but had to reluctantly face up to economic reality while pressing for the fourth option at conference every year.  The current administration don’t give off those vibes, but we can still hope for some sort of Damascene conversion.