On Wednesday 30 October 2024, Chancellor Rachel Reeves presented Labour’s first Budget for 14 years. The much-anticipated fiscal plan was dubbed as the Government’s attempt to ‘get Britain building’ again, with housing a key focus, but do the outlined initiatives go far enough when it comes to vital town centre regeneration?
Initiatives to get Britain building again
When reviewing Labour’s Autumn Budget, it is clear that housing is front and centre of the Government’s growth ambitions with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government being vocal about her ambitious target of 1.5m new homes by 2029.
In support of this target, the Government has outlined initiatives including an overhaul of the National Planning Policy Framework to enable more homes to be built on grey belt land, as well as brownfield passports.
Reviewing Labour’s Autumn Budget proposals
The Government also announced the following in the Autumn Budget:
- £500m for the Affordable Homes Programme with additional funding announcements to follow in Phase 2 of the Spending Review (between now and the Spending Review in Spring of 2025).
- Overall, £5bn is going into housing investment in 2025/26 alone.
- UK Shared Prosperity Fund (£900m) extended by a further 12 months to invest in local growth projects, including housing, ahead of wider funding reforms and devolved/growth funding to Combined Authorities.
- Integrated settlements for the West Midlands and Greater Manchester Combined Authorities for spending on, amongst other things, housing from 2025/26.
- Growth funding for Combined Authorities will be considered in Phase 2 of the Spending Review when the Devolution Bill is released.
Is there enough support for town centre regeneration?
While this is all reassuring to hear, especially as the housing crisis needs to be addressed, the only mention of town centre regeneration within the Autumn Budget Statement was buried under the ‘Place’ policy. It stated that the ‘Long-Term Plan for Towns’ funding programme – the last funding support remaining for town centre regeneration from the previous government – will be retained and reformed into a new funding programme.
The Autumn Budget rightly focuses on addressing the housing concerns in this country, but let’s hope the momentum built up in the last few years to intervene in the regeneration of town centres will not be lost and that our Local and Combined Authorities will have the necessary funding in the future to continue such vital works. After all, town centre regeneration is vital to supporting the delivery of housing and communities – making Britain a better place to live for all.