Communities secretary Sajid Javid today said he wanted to halt the decline in affordability of housing.
“Our newly expanded affordable housing programme, turbo-charged by a multi-billion pound investment, will allow housing associations to build more homes in places where they are most needed, particularly for families who are just about managing,” he said.
“By encouraging the delivery of more homes under a variety of tenures, we can create a housing market which truly works for everyone, meeting the diverse housing needs of this country.”
The £7bn funding pot includes the additional £1.4bn announced in November’s Autumn Statement for 40,000 new affordable homes.
The announcement continues a flurry of new year activity from the Department for Communities and Local Government on housing and development.
Earlier this week, DCLG announced 30 local authority-led partnerships for the development of starter homes, which will be available to younger buyers at 20% below market value. The locations of 14 garden villages and three more garden towns were also confirmed.
The funding unlocked today is intended to support the delivery of more shared ownership homes, more Rent to Buy homes (where first-time buyers are helped to save for a deposit) and more Affordable Rent homes, to help those in the private rented sector with housing costs.
DCLG said the people set to benefit from these schemes would be those on lower-than-average incomes who struggle to save and families who are “just about managing”.
Homes and Communities Agency chair Sir Ed Lister said: “The HCA is leading the government’s drive to increase the scale and pace of delivery of housebuilding.
“The expanded affordable housing programme will help us continue to work with both housing associations and developers new to this area of the housing market to increase the availability of affordable homes.”
