In the Autumn Budget today, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a £5bn investment aimed to deliver the 1.5 million homes promised over this Parliament.
A £500m boost will also be given to the Affordable Homes Programme to build up to 5,000 additional affordable homes
£3.2bn will be put into the affordable home program while there will be a further £3bn in support of the small house builders in the form of housing guarantee schemes, to support the private housing market.
Reeves confirmed that Right to Buy discounts will be reduced, allowing local authorities to retain full receipts “so that we can reinvest them back into the housing stock and into new supply.”
To provide stability for social housing providers, Reeves announced a social housing rate settlement at Consumer Price Index (CPI) plus 1% for the next five years.
The Government has already taken action to kickstart the delivery of 1.5 million homes by launching the National Planning Policy Framework consultation, the New Homes Accelerator, and New Towns Taskforce.
It is also seeking views on a ‘brownfield passport’ to ensure that suitable projects get a swift and straightforward approval for development.
The Government will set out details of future grant investment beyond the current Affordable Homes Programme at Phase 2 of the Spending Review, to support greater investment in new affordable housing from social housing providers.
Investment will run for at least the duration of this Parliament, and will support a mix of tenures, with a focus on delivering homes for social rent.
The Government will consult on whether further potential measures, such as a 10‑year settlement, could provide more certainty.
Reeves highlighted planned site renovations, including 2,000 new homes at Liverpool Central Docks, confirming £56m, along with a £25m investment in a new joint venture to deliver 3,000 energy‑efficient new homes across the country, with a target of 100% of these being affordable.
The government will engage with industry over the autumn on the Mortgage Guarantee Scheme, and plans to make it permanently available to support lending at 95%, ending the stop-start availability of the scheme.
The government will bring forward further details in Phase 2 of the Spending Review.
Reeves also promised to deliver on the manifesto commitment to provide more planning officers to speed up decision making.
Reeves said: “We will put the right policies in place to increase the supply of affordable housing…by doing this, we will give more people a safe, secure and affordable place to live.”
Jonathan Pearson, director of Residentially, said: “The Government was elected following its commitment to fix the housing crisis and deliver what they have described as ‘the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation.’
“In this Budget, they’ve taken significant steps to help make their ambitious housebuilding plans a reality by addressing some of the uncertainty that has held the social housing sector for far too long.
“For example, the new five-year rent settlement and reduced Right to Buy discounts are crucial measures to give more stability and reassurance to social housing providers and should help them better plan for the long term.
“The Chancellor’s promised increase to the Affordable Homes Programme, alongside more investment to boost the supply of new homes and back small housebuilders, is also hugely encouraging for the sector.
“Alongside this, Rachel Reeves has again committed to hiring hundreds more planning officers, which is a critical measure as councils are under-resourced and need more support to meet the government’s ambitious housing targets.
“However, funding must continue to flow to local authorities to ensure they can meet these demands; it would be counterintuitive to expect them to accelerate planning approvals without the necessary financial support.”
