Comprehensive Spending Review

The Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) details were announced on 20 October 2010. The Government’s main concern has been to reduce the deficit on public spending in order to restore the health of the country’s finances and place our economy on a sound footing in the future. This has come at an enormous cost to public services and welfare benefits, and the impact on our tenants, customers and local communities will be far reaching.

Affects of the CSR:

• For the next two years there will be no money available to housing associations to build new homes. We will be able to start building again in three years time but the rent on the new homes we develop will be around £20 per week more.

• Financial pressures on local authorities will mean that the amount of money available to us to provide care and supported housing will decrease substantially.

• The CSR included a range of measures to support the green agenda, and we will be exploring the possibilities for SYHA to improve the energy efficiency of new homes and our existing stock. We hope these measures will mean savings on fuel bills for some of our tenants.

• A range of cuts to welfare benefits are intended to save £11billion in public expenditure. These include cuts in housing benefit for people who have been in receipt of Job Seekers Allowance for over 12 months. The Government is also intending to make it simpler and more encouraging for people to re-enter the world of work.

We have choices to make in the future about the types of services and new homes we wish to provide. We are in discussion with the Residents Improvement Panel as we review our future direction. This will be reflected in our new Strategy which will be available in the spring.

November 2010