CPRE calls for overhaul of government spending on housing

London takes more government funding for housebuilding schemes than the North and the Midlands combined, according to a new analysis of official figures.

The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England said spending on housing schemes in Greater London over the past three years was running at £85 per person, while for the Midlands Engine “super region” – the ex-East and West Midlands government office regions – it was £24 per person.

For the Northern Powerhouse the spending level was £28 per person.

The scale of the government’s promise to “level up” areas of the UK outside London has been revealed by the CPRE, which said the Housing Investment Fund and the New Homes Bonus must be “fundamentally reformed” if deprived areas are to be properly regenerated.

The charity said the spending on housing schemes was skewed towards the capital “and directly contradicts the government’s levelling up agenda”.

Tom Fyans, the CPRE’s campaigns and policy director, said if the chancellor was serious about levelling up the country, he should put left-behind communities at the heart of his budget.

“It is these communities who desperately need well-designed new places which can be delivered with a fairer share of housing investment from central government,” he added.

In his first budget as chancellor of the exchequer this week Rishi Sunak is expected to announce a series of investment packages designed to appeal to people in northern constituencies who switched their vote from Labour to the Conservatives at last December’s general election.