Manningham Housing Association’s CEO has written to Michael Gove after it emerged that almost £2bn in housing crisis funding was returned to the Treasury
After figures released under the the Freedom of Information Act showed that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communitites (DLUHC) returned £1.9bn of housing crisis funding, the housing sector has responded with disappointment.
Jack Shaw, who uncovered the initial figures, said that “the government is experiencing significant challenges investing in housing because of a perfect storm in market conditions.
“But the decision to delay housing investment or withdraw it altogether as a result of lower than anticipated spending will mean fewer homes are built.”
CEO of Manningham Housing Association (MHA) Lee Bloomfield has now written a letter to Levelling Up secretary Michael Gove, asking why his department failed to find a use for the allocated funding.
Over 3,000 people are on MHA’s waiting list for affordable housing
It is believed the £19.bn in housing crisis funding includes £355m of the programmed spending on the Affordable Homes Programme for 2022-23, which could have financed the building of at least 5,000 new homes.
The MHA chief executive wrote: “If this is indeed the case, it is a shame that neither you nor your officials chose to visit Bradford district before handing these resources back.
He advised Mr Gove that MHA manages over 1,400 homes for more than 6,000 people, adding: “However, demand is huge. 3,359 people are currently on our waiting list for an MHA home. 1,551 of these need a home of more than three bedrooms. As you might imagine, to read that Government resources to help us meet this demand have simply been handed back is more than a little disappointing from our perspective.”
More affordable homes are needed in Bradford and across the UK
In his letter, Mr Bloomfield stressed that, whilst he did not doubt the difficulty of tackling the national housing crisis nor Michael Gove’s “personal commitment to meeting this challenge, I do question how and why the limited funds available to you are not being used.”
He continued: “In the meantime, individuals and families – in Bradford and Keighley, as elsewhere – are being denied the opportunity to live in a high-quality affordable home for reasons neither they nor I can understand.”
The MHA chief executive added: “I again extend an invitation for you to visit one or more of our housing schemes and hope MHA can play a fuller role in helping you deliver more affordable properties to improve life prospects in Bradford district.”
