London should keep 25% of Stamp Duty raised in the capital to fund social housing and homelessness prevention, the G15 has said.
The group of London’s largest not-for-profit housing associations said the proposal would be worth around £1.3bn a year, based on 2024/25 receipts. It would create a dedicated fund for permanent social housing and homelessness prevention.
The G15 said London retaining 25% of the Stamp Duty generated in the capital over the past decade would have raised around £11bn.
London boroughs currently spend more than £5m every day on temporary accommodation. More than 100,000 children are among the 210,000 Londoners living in temporary housing.
In its submission ahead of the Chancellor’s Budget on 28 October, the G15 warned that London’s housing crisis is holding back economic growth and making it harder for employers and public services to recruit and retain workers.
Alongside Stamp Duty retention, the G15 is calling for:
- Greater devolution: more control for London over housing funding, public land, and skills investment, with certainty over its share of the £39bn Social and Affordable Homes Programme
- More affordable homes: protection for existing funding commitments and faster access to low-interest loans to help housing associations build
- Shared ownership reform: a review of the £90,000 London household income cap, which has not changed since 2016, and a pilot of discounted mortgage rates to help shared owners buy more of their homes. G15 modelling suggests the pilot could unlock £7.1bn for investment in new and existing homes over five years
- Action on homelessness and living costs: restoring Local Housing Allowance to reflect current rents, reforming temporary accommodation funding, and removing the household benefit cap
- Investment in existing homes: protecting funding for energy efficiency improvements and reducing the VAT costs of maintaining and improving social housing
Ian McDermott, chair of the G15 and chief executive of Peabody, said: “The government has made an important long-term commitment to social and affordable housing. The next step is making sure London has the certainty and flexibility to turn that commitment into homes.
“London’s housing crisis is increasingly an economic problem as well as a social one. If people who work in the capital can’t afford to live here, that affects employers, public services and London’s ability to support growth across the country.
“The Budget is an opportunity to give London more of the tools it needs. That includes greater control over housing investment and allowing the capital to reinvest some of the revenues its housing market generates in permanent homes rather than continuing to spend billions managing homelessness.”
Main image: Peabody’s St Johns Hill
Read next: Housing Plus Group reports £37.8m surplus
Are you a social housing professional? Sign up for a FREE MEMBERSHIP to upload news stories, post job vacancies, and connect with colleagues on our secure social feed.
