{"text":[[{"start":8.76,"text":"Andy Burnham has watered down his most ambitious plans on council house building as he seeks to kick-start the government’s existing affordable homes programme."}],[{"start":111.4,"text":"The prime minister has allocated an initial £10bn of Labour’s £39bn social and affordable homes programme largely to housing associations, with about 60 per cent earmarked for social rent, three months after saying the scheme should be “dedicated to council homes”."}],[{"start":111.9,"text":"It raises questions about how he will fulfil promises of “the biggest council housebuilding programme since the postwar period”."}],[{"start":112.4,"text":"Burnham has made greater public control over housing a foundation of his political argument."}],[{"start":112.9,"text":"Sharp ideological battle lines were drawn over the issue on Monday as Nigel Farage’s rightwing Reform UK sought to link property shortages to immigration and said it would prioritise “British-born” families for social homes."}],[{"start":113.4,"text":"Subsidised housing in England is built by a range of bodies including not-for-profit housing associations, offering social rent, at about 50 per cent of market value, affordable rent, at about 80 per cent of market rates, and shared ownership schemes."}],[{"start":113.9,"text":"However, Burnham has repeatedly said he wanted local authorities to take over this role, stressing that “control matters”. At the launch of his campaign to be MP for Makerfield, he said the £39bn fund “should be dedicated to council homes. Let’s not be coy any more”."}],[{"start":105.84,"text":"On Monday the government set out plans to allocate £10bn to 33 organisations, mainly housing associations but including some councils, in a similar allocation to that being finalised under Burnham’s predecessor Sir Keir Starmer. As under Starmer’s plan, about 60 per cent of the 70,000 homes due to be built are earmarked for social rent."}],[{"start":113,"text":"Technical changes have been introduced which will make it easier for councils to bid for money from the programme. Officials said future stages of the programme will be tilted more towards councils."}],[{"start":123.32,"text":"But after taking account of funding for London, allocated separately, the government has just £16bn left to commit, making a radical scale-up of council homes hard without new funding."}],[{"start":133.92,"text":"Last year councils built 10,500 homes, with half of local authorities building none at all. In the 1950s councils averaged about 190,000 a year and in the 1970s the average was about 130,000."}],[{"start":148.64,"text":"People familiar with ministers’ thinking said the bids for the money had been finalised before Burnham took over and ripping up the process would have caused unacceptable delays at a time when 180,000 children are living in temporary accommodation."}],[{"start":162.4,"text":"Kate Henderson, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, called the decision “a major vote of confidence in not-for-profit housing associations and in the vital and distinct role they play”."}],[{"start":173.12,"text":"Meanwhile Reform set out a housing policy that would favour working people born in the UK over people born elsewhere who have become British citizens."}],[{"start":182.76,"text":"Among British-born couples, married couples with children would be prioritised over unmarried couples with children, the party said."}],[{"start":190.52,"text":"Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader and a former property developer, said the building programme would be financed without raising taxes, partly by changing how homes owned by housing associations were valued and allowing them to increase borrowing."}],[{"start":204.6,"text":"Reform said it would also expand the so-called ‘Right to Buy’ scheme for social housing, but pledged to build two homes for every one sold."}],[{"start":215.76,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1787624852_7353.mp3"}