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The Spending Review will test the government’s commitment to housing
Mel Barrett, chief executive of MTVH housing association, lays out his asks when it comes to the government’s investment in social housing
Mel Barrett is chief executive of Metropolitan Thames Valley
Mel Barrett, chief executive of MTVH, lays out his asks when it comes to the government’s investment in social housing #UKhousingTomorrow, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor of the exchequer, will deliver the first multi-year Spending Review from a Labour government since the 2000s.
This moment will be pivotal for understanding the government’s priorities, and for where housing fits into the range of competing demands for Treasury support.
It’s not hyperbole to continue to refer to a housing crisis. A household needs a combined income of over £76,000 to rent an average home in London, pricing out many of the very people the capital needs the most.
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There is something seriously wrong when the teachers, nurses, refuse collectors – the people we rely on to keep society functioning – can’t afford to live in the communities they serve. Having more and more families in limbo, unable to put down roots and struggling for long-term security, damages employment and educational prospects.
As the chancellor faces the unenviable task of allocating limited resources across Whitehall, we believe housing is essential to the overall success of the interlinked and interdependent UK economy.
I am clear that, for our nation to achieve its full potential, we must build more affordable homes. Yet housing starts in London alone from the largest not-for-profit providers have dropped by two-thirds over the past two years.
Recent analysis by the National Housing Federation found that the waiting time for a family-sized socially rented home in some London boroughs is over a century.
For the frontline workers priced out of their own communities and the families on ever-growing waiting lists, this failure to build has a human cost of more financial hardship and uncertainty.
“Housing is essential to the overall success of the interlinked and interdependent UK economy”
For a government with such vast housing ambitions, these statistics bring home the scale of the task we face.
The G15 group of large London landlords’ Spending Review submission set out how affordable housing is critical infrastructure – a national asset. It should be treated as such by the Treasury, not viewed as borrowing or a grant on balance sheets.
The benefits of investment in affordable housing go beyond the immediate goal of providing more housing units. The social benefits are immeasurable, and the economic return will pay for itself. G15 research found that the 289,000 socially rented homes they manage in London generate £6.86bn in social value every year, and every new affordable home generates over £27,000 in value annually.
When applied across the nation as a whole, the potential gains from affordable housing are vast.
Enabling low-income workers to live affordably in their communities isn’t just the right thing to do for those individuals, it drives sustainable, inclusive growth. In these challenging times, housing associations are working hard to deliver the homes our nation needs.
As MTVH’s financial results for the year to March 2025 show, notwithstanding a very challenging operating environment, we completed 544 new homes during the year and our five-year pipeline contains plans to build 4,970 more. We also spent £47.5m over the past 12 months on capitalised improvement works to the homes we own and manage.
To housing associations such as MTVH, providing affordable housing is not just about bricks and mortar, but about investing in our residents, neighbourhoods and our economy.
“MTVH, alongside our G15 partners, is eager to help the government deliver its housing aims and contribute to building the 1.5 million new homes the country desperately needs”
We are ready to deliver more, but we need the tools to ramp our development up. The G15 has set out clear asks for the Spending Review, which we believe will best equip the sector to help the government to meet the 1.5 million new-homes target and continue to deliver much-needed new homes going forward. These asks are:
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A 10-year, inflation-linked rent settlement at the Consumer Price Index + 1%, alongside the reintroduction of a rent convergence mechanism, to provide the long-term funding stability we need to build new homes and give lenders the confidence to invest. Without this certainty, we risk missing out on the funding needed to build.
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Access to the Building Safety Fund for providers carrying out essential safety works on social homes. This simple change will help to make building safety fair for social tenants and free up resources for development. This was set out by Pamela Newman, chair of our customer council and a member of the G15 residents group, in a comment for Inside Housing.
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The government should provide certainty by committing to a long-term future for the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP), which is due to expire next year. This uncertainty is a cause of anxiety across the sector, and continuation of the AHP will be a sure sign of the government’s commitment to delivering affordable homes.
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A new, long-term Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund and Decent Homes Fund to enable social housing providers to co-ordinate large-scale upgrades that improve energy efficiency and living standards and enable workforce development.
MTVH, alongside our G15 partners, is eager to help the government deliver its housing aims and contribute to building the 1.5 million new homes that the country desperately needs. Now we are asking for the necessary investment so that, together, we can begin to address the housing crisis.
The Spending Review is a major opportunity for ministers to demonstrate commitment to their housing mission.
Mel Barrett, chief executive, MTVH
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