The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sajid Javid has launched the
beginning of the Budget process and announced that the post-Brexit
Budget will take place on Wednesday 11 March 2020.
In making the announcement the Chancellor said the Budget "will
set out ambitious plans to unleash Britain's potential, level up
across the UK and usher in a decade of renewal", starting "a new
chapter for the economy, seizing the opportunities that come from
getting Brexit done".
The Government's press release which accompanied the
announcement of the date of the Budget says that "the Budget will
prioritise the environment and build on recent announcements to
boost spending on public services and tackle the cost of living.
These include investing in new hospitals, training thousands of new
police officers, funding vocational education and the biggest ever
cash increase to the National Living Wage." There is no specific
mention of social housing.
In the Background Briefing Papers to the Queen's
Speech, the Government promised to renew the Affordable
Homes Programme, building "hundreds of thousands of new homes" for
a range of people in different places, but the Briefing Paper gave
no indication of what proportion of the Affordable Homes Programme
would be dedicated to building social rented housing.
The launch of the Budget process means that individuals,
interest groups and representative bodies can now submit a Budget
representation to HM Treasury to comment on Government's policy
and/or suggest new policy for inclusion in the Budget.
ARCH has already submitted a joint report with the Chartered
Institute of Housing (CIH) and the National Federation of ALMOs
(NFA) on the impact
of the lifting of the Housing Revenue Account Borrowing
Cap and some of the barriers that still exist to further
investment in council housing new build programmes. ARCH Chief
Executive John Bibby will be meeting officials from HM Treasury on
28 January to discuss that report and the ARCH Board will be
meeting on 20 January to consider submission of a Budget
representation to HM Treasury.