Further 80,000 affordable homes to be built by 2015

14 Jul 11
Up to 170,000 new and affordable homes will be built in England by 2015, ministers announced today.

By Vivienne Russell | 14 July 2011

Up to 170,000 new and affordable homes will be built in England by 2015, ministers announced today.

Home building

A total of 146 providers, including some councils, have been awarded a share of £1.8bn of funding by the Homes and Communities Agency under the Affordable Homes Programme. This will pay to build 80,000 new homes over the next four years, on top of the 90,000 already planned. Housing minister Grant Shapps said this exceeded the government’s original ambition of providing 150,000 homes by 2015.

Shapps said the volume of bids for the funding was a ‘ringing endorsement’ for the Affordable Homes Programme and had ‘confounded’ critics.

‘There were some who predicted doom and said very few [developers] would want to be involved in this radical new approach. Others said it would work in the Southeast but nowhere else. But we now have a wealth of strong proposals, putting us on track to deliver up to 170,000 new affordable homes across the country over the next four years.’

Of the 146 successful bidders, 99 are registered social landlords and 26 are local authorities. A full list of providers can be viewed here.

London is the HCA region set to benefit the most from the funds. London‑based bids have received 27% of the available funding in order to build almost 22,000 affordable homes, 16,000 of which will be for rent.

The HCA’s East and Southeast region was the next most successful, winning 18% of the funding for more than 14,000 homes. The Northeast, Yorkshire and the Humber did least well, winning 10% of the available funding for just over 8,000 homes.

HCA chief executive Pat Ritchie said: ‘The extremely strong response to the new Affordable Homes Programme shows the appetite among the agency’s partners to deliver.’

She added: ‘I am particularly pleased that we will be directly funding so many local authorities through our mainstream programme for the first time, to deliver affordable homes that will make a positive difference to local people.’

Of the 80,000 homes set to be built, 29% will be large, family homes with three or more bedrooms, almost 10% will be supported housing and 9% will be in rural areas.

Commenting on the announcement, National Housing Federation chief executive David Orr said: ‘The fact that housing associations are going to build the vast majority of the nation’s affordable homes over the next four years – despite the housebuilding budget having being cut by 63% – is a testament to their innovation and ability to manage risk in difficult situations.

‘And today’s news shows that they will continue to do all they can to help tackle the nation’s housing crisis, even in a challenging environment. In many respects they are the embodiment of the Big Society in action.’

Sarah Webb, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing, said: 'It is testament to the hard work of organisations that they have been able to stretch the limited public funding available to this extent. There do, however, remain serious on-going concerns about the impact of the new investment model on businesses' future investment prospects.We also know that while the 170,000 homes is good news, the consensus is that the number actually required to make a dent in a growing housing crisis is vastly higher.'

Spacer

CIPFA logo

PF Jobsite logo

Did you enjoy this article?

AddToAny

Top