The New Homes Bonus

• What is the New Homes Bonus (NHB)?

  
  

  Grant provided for councils from gov that allow new homes to be built in their areas

  • Addresses demand for more housing
  • Paid for gov, affordable housing g
• NHB context:


  700,000 empty homes in the UK (2012), NHB encouraged to put these back into use
• Benefits of NHBS:

  1. Council chose how to spend money from the government after housing built > work with community to decide how to spend the extra funding e.g. council tax discounts, boosting services such as rubbish collection, providing facilities e.g. swimming pool
  2. Renovate derelict empty houses
  3. Focus on affordable housing
• Criticism/ concerns of NHBS:

  1. Councils in areas that attract little interest from developers face losing significant amounts of money
  2. Gov overestimates amount of new homes the scheme would deliver, watchdog predicated build 108,000 homes, 3200 less than gov forecasted
  3. Mistaken forecasts and uncertainty over future income from NHB are hampering councils efforts
  4. If not a desirable area to live then the councils have cut in the budget, these areas are socially deprived > high crime as developers don't want to build there as unlikely to make profit