News analysis UK spending review
be ‘refocused on the most cost- effective technologies’, which it says will mean a saving of £40m in 2014-15. In addition, it says there will be a further £70m cut to the funding that relates to the ‘lower-value innovation and technology projects’. Which technologies will fall within or outside these defi nitions has yet to be clarifi ed.
Housing Social housing has been hugely affected by the cuts, with 60% of its budget cut. The coalition says it still expects around 150,000 new affordable homes to be built up to 2015, largely paid for by an increase in the market rate for social housing rents. The CSR also says that new social
housing will be constructed using ‘more modest capital investment’. However, the Decent Homes Standard, which aims to improve the state of existing social housing, will continue. John Alker of UK Green
Building Council said it feared that standards in social housing may now fall. ‘Social housing has been a trailblazer for high standards of sustainability,’ he said.’ In the changes that follow, these standards
must not fall by the wayside. Sustainable homes are good-quality homes and play a key role in tackling fuel poverty.’ John Hicks, partner at cost consultants Davis Langdon, said developers would have no choice but to make homes leaner: ‘It puts an added pressure on the green agenda. At a time when people
expert, Dr Mike Entwisle, described the year-on-year reduction in school building as ‘sadly what we expected’. But a more worrying aspect, he says, is the demise of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), which has had its funding from the Culture Department withdrawn. Entwisle added: ‘The demise
Social housing has been a trail-blazer for
high standards of sustainability, which must not now fall by the wayside – John Alker
are worried about their jobs they are naturally going to put their environmental aims lower down on their shopping list.’
Schools Osborne promised that 600 schools and academies would be rebuilt or refurbished, at a cost of £15.8bn – a 60% reduction over the four-year CSR period – and considerably less than the £55bn of funding that was pledged under the scrapped Building Schools for the Future programme. Buro Happold’s education
of this valuable body is to be regretted and we can only hope that something emerges to replace it, whether on a local or national basis.’
Green investment The much-trailed plan for a Green Investment Bank (GIB) has been confi rmed, and it will receive a government cash injection of £1bn when it is set up, with further funding expected from the sale of government assets. According to the CSR, it will be independent of political control and will act as a catalyst for private investment to
fi nance the green infrastructure needed to transform the UK to a low carbon economy. The government also confi rmed
the Green Deal programme, which will enable householders to retrofi t their existing homes with no upfront costs. The money will be paid back through the savings they make on their energy bills. However, the Warm Front programme, which currently helps householders improve the energy effi ciency of their homes through simple measures like insulation, will be phased out to save £345m by 2013-14. Other commitments confi rmed
in the CSR include: • Adult apprenticeship funding will be increased by £250m a year by 2014-15, relative to current spending levels;
• Up to £1bn for one of the world’s fi rst commercial scale carbon, capture and storage facilities; and
• £4.6bn allocated to maintain funding for the highest-value scientifi c research. A government business plan
on details of the reforms are to be published later this year, followed by a White Paper early in the new year.
www.hm-treasury.gov.uk ●
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