Budget 2024: “Invest, invest, invest!” Is increased investment enough to deliver on Labour’s housing pledges?

Since the General Election in July, almost every conversation we at Public Practice have had with local authority officers has involved the Budget. This week, we finally heard what the first Labour Budget in almost 15 years had in store for local government and the wider housing sector.

In the opening lines of her Budget statement, Rachel Reeves said the only way to drive economic growth is to ‘invest, invest, invest’. The Government’s focus on driving investment is particularly important for delivering on its ambition to build 1.5 million homes in the next five years, and unsurprisingly, housing featured extensively in the Chancellor’s speech.

Almost everyone in the sector agrees that this was a big Budget – but are the policies and spending commitments big enough to match the Government’s housing ambitions?

The precipitous state of local government funding and finances is well documented. Funding constraints and a lack of capacity in local authority planning and placemaking services have become major blockers to delivering quality and affordable housing across the country.

The Chancellor restated Labour’s manifesto commitment to recruit 300 new planners to boost and upskill local planning authority teams, allocating £50 million in funding to deliver on this pledge. We know from our 2024 Recruitment and Skills Survey that over 70% of local authorities have difficulty attracting appropriately qualified or skilled candidates, leading to placemaking teams that are seriously under-resourced, with an average of 10% of posts vacant.

Our survey also revealed the growing need to recruit professionals with property development and capital delivery skills into local government. The need rose from 29% of authorities lacking these skills in 2023 to 55% in 2024. This skills gap will present a major challenge in delivering housing, and we are working closely with our partners across the industry and in MHCLG to advocate for and drive forward the creation of multidisciplinary teams in local authorities by recruiting suitable candidates from within the broader built environment sector.

Only by supporting local councils in recruiting and retaining multidisciplinary teams of placemaking professionals can the current Labour Government achieve its mission of delivering housing and growing the economy

We have a strong track record of working with local government to help them recruit built environment professionals into planning, housing, and retrofit teams. Recently, we worked with Liverpool City Council to recruit a Development Manager for their Development and Major Projects team to deliver key regeneration projects, including the North Docks regeneration. We were delighted to see that this project received additional investment from the Government in the Budget announcement, and we look forward to seeing our Associate’s contribution to the delivery of 2,000 new homes.

The Budget provides other welcome measures to boost local government finances, including an additional £1.3 billion in grant funding, a £500 million boost to the existing Affordable Homes Programme, changes to the Right to Buy scheme enabling councils to retain 100% of the receipts, £233 million of additional spending to prevent homelessness, and £3.4 billion towards household decarbonisation over the next three years.

However, some in local government may be disappointed that multi-year settlements were not announced and that they will have to wait for the second phase of the spending review for greater clarity. Concerns remain that the commitments made in the Budget do not go far enough to address the fundamental shortfalls, though the Budget was certainly a statement of intent, with funding allocated to deliver and improve housing.

Our organisation is committed and ready to support central and local government in realising their placemaking ambitions by boosting the skills and capacity of public sector planning and placemaking teams. Only by supporting local councils in recruiting and retaining multidisciplinary teams of placemaking professionals can the current Labour Government achieve its mission of delivering housing and growing the economy.