Now we need to turn the conversation towards affordability

We also need to turn the conversation towards one of the biggest issues people across the UK are facing: affordability.

It came up time and time again when we started to discuss our new project, Rethinking social housing, which we hope will help shape the future of social housing.

It is clearly coming up in the roadshows that housing minister Alok Sharma is hosting as a way of meeting tenants and discussing their concerns, too.

According to Jenny Osbourne, chief executive of Tpas, in her report on the roadshows so far, “there’s no doubt that Mr Sharma and his team have got the message that no one sees affordable rent as affordable and that everyone is calling for a return to social rents that people can genuinely afford”.

We cannot underestimate the potential impact if things go on as they are. Following the Autumn Budget, we have had confirmation that the government’s freeze on working-age benefits, including housing benefit, will continue for another year, until April 2019.

Thinktank the Resolution Foundation said that a typical working family with two children would lose £315 a year as a result of the policy. It has also warned that the UK is on course for the longest fall in living standards since records began in the 1950s.

Downgrades to economic growth forecasts mean that household disposable incomes are now set to fall until 2020, with the poorest third of households set for an average loss of £715 a year by the end of the current parliament.

Meanwhile the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that British workers face two lost decades of stagnant wages.

“Downgrades to economic growth forecasts mean that household disposable incomes are now set to fall.”

This all comes at a time when numbers of genuinely affordable homes are falling. While annual housing supply in England amounted to a very encouraging 217,350 net additional dwellings in 2016/17, Inside Housing analysis has shown that just 2.5% of those homes were for social rent – down from 3.6% in the previous year and the lowest percentage since the net additions records began in 2001.

Government statistics released in November this year show that 23,186 social homes were sold in 2016/17 in England (up 5% compared with the previous year), while separate figures revealed that the number of new social rented homes delivered dropped to 5,380, down from 39,560 in 2010/11.

The CIH’s own analysis shows that almost 250,000 homes for social rent could be lost between 2012 and 2020.

As we have consistently pointed out, social rent is the only truly affordable option for many people on lower incomes.

We have been shouting about the urgent need for investment in genuinely affordable homes for rent for a long time.

It is gratifying to hear an increasing number of voices join us and to see some recognition from ministers that social rent deserves attention.

“Social rent is the only truly affordable option for many people on lower incomes.”

We need to make sure that people who cannot afford market prices can still access a safe, secure home; and of course investment in affordable housing makes economic sense too – new research from Savills shows that grant funding for new affordable homes could cut the housing benefit bill by £430m a year.

Ms May’s recent announcement of an extra £2bn investment in affordable housing was a welcome first step, and the government’s pledge to deliver 300,000 homes a year in England is the right ambition.

But as my colleague Melanie Rees, head of policy, has pointed out, this is not just a numbers game; it’s about making sure that we build the right homes in the right places and that people can afford them.

The Autumn Budget was light on measures that could make a real difference to improving affordability. We must keep pushing this crucial issue to the top of the agenda.

Terrie Alafat, chief executive, Chartered Institute of Housing