Inventing our future Collective action for a sustainable economy

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Disabled Facilities Grants
8.30 At present, the use of DFGs is not strategic, since resources are distributed essentially on the basis
of formulae, and the mandatory provision of grants is demand-led. Given that demand far exceeds
resources, the use of grants follows rationing processes, rather than prioritisation. This needs to
be addressed; however the development of a more strategic approach will have to await the
outcome of a Government review of the system.
8.31 Aids and adaptations discretionary funding for housing association stock was signalled in the last
RHS as requiring a more strategic approach to investment with a move away from block
allocations of grant effectively drawn down at a housing associations discretion. This policy
approach remains and while ‘in principle’ aids and adaptation funding can still be made by the
Housing Corporation, this will be continue to be on an individual aids and adaptations project
basis only where the housing association can demonstrate that all other sources of funding have
been exhausted, including the housing association’s own internal resources. Those associations
formed as a result of a local authority transferring its housing after 31 March 1996 remain
ineligible for funding for this purpose and should already have accounted for these needs in their
business plans. The Housing Corporation expects all housing associations to be moving towards a
longer-term strategy on how the needs for those tenants requiring adaptations to their homes will
be met.
8.32 Figure 8, ‘Policy Framework: housing, improving health and well-being‘ illustrates the areas that
contribute to a long-term strategy on adaptations (see section 6).
Investment in new affordable housing
Products
8.33 There is a range of optional forms of new affordable housing currently available through housing
associations as products of Social Housing Grant (SHG) invested from the SRHP:
• social renting – rents are set significantly below market levels within the Government’s
rent restructuring framework
• sub-market renting – rents are set between social and market levels, using less subsidy,
reflecting the needs of households in the ‘intermediate market‘
• shared ownership – households purchase a part of the equity in their home, paying a
rent on the remainder to the housing association for the part of their equity not subsidised
through SHG
• equity loans – households are provided with SHG in the form of an interest-free loan to
cover part of the cost of purchasing a home, as currently offered under HomeBuy and the
Government’s Key Worker Living initiative.
8.34 In pursuing its aim to extend opportunities to for home ownership, the Government was, at the
time of writing, consulting on proposals to streamline shared ownership and equity loans into a
range of three HomeBuy products: Social HomeBuy – equity sharing for social tenants in the
homes they currently occupy; New Build HomeBuy – equity sharing in a new home built for this
purpose; and Open Market HomeBuy – purchasing a share of a property on the open market. The
latter two types are aimed at Key Workers and other first time buyers. EERA/RHB will be identifying
target groups in its investment proposals to Ministers. Households receiving grant assistance will