The government is expected to provide money for sites where work has stopped because of funding problems and for building council houses. The stamp duty ‘holiday’ on buying housing is also expected to be extended.

An announcement is also expected on a scheme to turn unsold homes into social housing.

Darling is also expected to reveal a rise in public borrowing of as much as £160 billion as tax revenues fall due to the recession.


There is no indication yet whether any of the £1 billion has been earmarked for the beleaguered LSC framework.

RIBA welcomed the announcement, issuing a statement to the AJ saying: ‘The proposed £1billion boost to move housing projects along should be very worthwhile particularly if this initiates a start up in new houses being built. Architects working on both private and social housing have seen a huge drop-off in their work and anything the Government can do to help kick-start this would hugely help that large number of practices.

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