You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Housing secretary Robert Jenrick has told MPs that there will be a “significant” increase in the number of homes for social rent under the new £12bn Affordable Homes Programme.
Speaking yesterday in the House of Commons, Mr Jenrick said: “The new Affordable Homes Programme, which we announced yesterday, will be over £12bn. We have not yet finalised the details, but will set them out shortly.
“They will show the proportion of those homes that will be for different tenures, for shared ownership and affordable rent to social rent.
"We want a significant increase in the number of those homes in the social rent category.”
The renewed Affordable Homes Programme will receive £12.2bn – this is £3bn more than what was put into the previous programme, which runs from 2016/17 to 2020/21.
Only 4% of the 90,000 homes funded through the programme since 2016 have been for social rent, according to data published last month.
Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: “Seeing the housing secretary commit to a significant increase in social housing is a very welcome sight. These social homes will transform lives.
“The housing emergency keeps growing – with hundreds of thousands of people facing the misery of homelessness.
“Voices across the political spectrum now agree that building much more social housing is the only way to solve the housing crisis. But when only 6,000 new social rent homes were delivered last year, we urgently need a big investment.”
Inside Housing reported earlier this week that the government is looking at introducing a stipulation for housing association homes built for rent under the new Affordable Homes Programme to be automatically made available to tenants as shared ownership properties.
This comes after Mr Jenrick confirmed that the government will proceed with its proposed shared ownership Right to Buy scheme despite it being omitted from the Conservative Party manifesto.
Inside Housing is bringing you up-to-date news, analysis and comment from the first post-Brexit Budget.
Here are the details of all our coverage so far:
Shared ownership Right to Buy likely to be applied to all rented homes funded under £12bn programme The government is looking at allowing tenants renting homes built through the new Affordable Homes Programme the right to shared ownership of their homes
Fire safety costs ‘could still hit development pipelines’ despite £1bn fund Concerns remain in sector despite cladding removal fund
Budget 2020: an improvement on recent years but questions remain Jules Birch gives his verdict on the first post-Brexit Budget
Housing figures react to ‘positive’ Budget announcements for sector Reaction from key sector figures to the measures unveiled
The housing bits of Sunak’s speech in full Read the key passages from the chancellor’s speech to the House of Commons
PWLB rates for social housing cut to pre-hike levels The cost for councils of borrowing to fund social housing will fall
Budget 2020: the key housing measures at a glance An at-a-glance guide to the key Budget announcements for the sector
Chancellor announces additional £12bn for Affordable Homes Programme Rishi Sunak announces the largest affordable grant programme in years
£650m fund to tackle rough sleeping The chancellor promises to fund 6,000 new places for rough sleepers to live
£1bn Building Safety Fund to remove ‘all forms’ of cladding The government pledges money to make all buildings safer
Housing secretary to announce planning reforms Ministers will set plans to reform the planning system on Thursday
Pre-Budget:
What should the housing sector look out for in today’s Budget? Peter Apps runs through the issues the sector should be looking out for
The housing sector is right to feel anxious about tomorrow’s Budget The government has indicated that its main focus with regard to housing policy is homeownership. The sector should be nervous about what this means for its spending priorities, writes John Perry
What the sector wants from the chancellor James Wilmore sifts through the submissions from the sector’s biggest players to find out what they want from the Budget later today
Conservative MPs urge chancellor to use Budget to build more social housing A group of 27 Conservative MPs and the mayor of the West Midlands have written to chancellor Rishi Sunak ahead of the Budget statement to urge him to allocate more money to building social housing.
How this Budget will signal the government’s direction of travel on housing With the first post-Brexit Budget due, Kate Henderson assesses the issues on which the sector has been lobbying
Already have an account? Click here to manage your newsletters