Associations have capacity to double new homes ? Savills

The report, entitled Releasing Untapped Potential for More Housing, estimates the sector could develop an extra 44,000 homes annually, split equally between market sale, shared ownership, market rent and affordable rent. In the last financial year, the 50 largest housing associations built 31,988 homes with around 40,000 built by the sector as a whole.

The increase would be funded by housing associations borrowing against their existing assets, which Savills believes could raise an extra ?7.4bn. But the report also argues that some form of subsidy would be critical to underpin the delivery of these new homes. Without grant funding, it states, associations would have to acquire land at either zero or low cost in order to fund the development of affordable rent and shared ownership homes.

?The message from the Autumn Statement is a great start, but with bolder ambition we can really increase the number of homes being built, spread across a range of tenures,? said Robert Grundy, head of housing at Savills.

But, he warned, this would not happen overnight. ?Increasing delivery rates is a long game and it will take a number of years for the sector to transition into the development space, as many [associations] become more accustomed to operating with greater risk and market exposure,? Mr Grundy said.