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Affordable housing starts down 16%, annual supply figures show
Affordable housing starts in England dropped by 16% last year as coronavirus restrictions severely hit council and housing association development, new government figures have shown.
Government figures published today reveal there were 57,417 affordable home starts in the 12 months to 31 March 2021, a 16% drop from the 68,346 recorded in 2019-20.
The annual housing supply report said the drop would have been largely down to the restrictions brought in last spring to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Of these, 6,239 were for social rent – which usually represents homes rented at 50% 60% the cost of market rent – up 9% on the 5,786 new starts in the previous year.
Affordable rent represented 19,692 of new starts, while there were 2,432 for intermediate rent – down 20% and up 27% respectively.
Shared ownership represented 13,759 of new affordable home starts, a drop of 40% from 22,999 in the previous year.
London affordable rent – introduced by mayor Sadiq Khan in 2017 and is generally more expensive than social rent – represented 5,518 of new starts, a decrease from 6,359 in 2019-20.
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The number of affordable homes completed decreased by 12% compared with 2019-20, from 57,644 to 52,100.
In 2020-21, affordable housing for rent represented 59% of starts and 65% of completions.
Of those, 5,955 were for social rent, down 11.5% from 6,735 in the previous year; while 2,102 were for London affordable rent, up 17% from 1,797 in 2019-20.
Shared ownership represented 17,097 of completions, down 6% from 18,216 the previous year.
Every year between 2015-16 and 2019-20 has seen an increase in the delivery of affordable homes in England, with last year being the outlier due “in a large part” to the restrictions introduced during the pandemic.
Councils delivered 6,873 affordable homes in 2020-21, representing 13% of overall completions in England and the second highest recorded number since 1991-92. The highest figure recorded since 1991-92,7,438, was in 2019-20.
However, according to the government’s report on the figures, the comparison “should be interpreted with care” because before 2011-12 there may have been more council homes built but there was a higher proportion of homes that were supplied where the council or housing association delivering them could not be identified.
Section 106 planning agreements with developers funded 47% of all affordable housing delivery in 2020-21, down from 51% the previous year.
As part of its planning reforms, the government intends to scrap Section 106 and replace it with a new Infrastructure Levy, though some housing bodies have warned the change could lead to a reduction in affordable homes.
In 2020-21, 81% of all affordable homes were delivered by private registered providers, with local authorities delivering 13% and non-registered providers 3%.
The figures are similar to the four previous years.
In 2020-21, 89% of affordable homes delivered in England were new build and 11% were acquisitions, representing the highest proportion and number of acquisitions since 2014-15.
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