Social homes are key in solving the housing crisis
The Government has announced that at least 60% of the £39 billion allocated for affordable housing, around 300,000 homes, will be at social rent levels.
Richard Beresford, Chief Executive of the National Federation of Builders (NFB), said:
“This is superb news because unaffordable housing is the greatest barrier to growth and a social housing revolution reduces the welfare bill, helps destigmatise tenure types and creates a pipeline of work for SME housebuilders and contractors.”
Alongside the announcement, ‘Delivering a Decade of Renewal for Social and Affordable Housing’ is set to be released later in the day (2 July 2025), which sets out how the Government will deliver its ambition, as well as driving up safety and quality of homes.
Further announcements include:
Updating and modernising Decent Homes Standard and extending it to privately rented homes.
Minimum energy efficiency standards are set in the social housing sector.
Right to Buy reforms
Further measures to protect social housing stock.
Rico Wojtulewicz, Head of Policy and Market Insight at the NFB and House Builders Association (HBA), said:
“It has become politically expedient to blame builders for using land, while chastising them for not building the homes the public sector should be building. Yet when the public sector tries to build, it quickly realises how land use opposition, a broken planning system and politically motivated regulatory change makes projects unviable.
Today’s announcement places more responsibility on the Government to build our homes and opens the door to discuss why other nations do not copy the UK’s flawed affordable housing model.
While changing our approach would be arduous, uncomfortable and lengthy, if we want to solve the housing crisis, we must rid ourselves of this awful policy which has weakened the UK housebuilding industry by restricting supply, making projects unprofitable, embedding legal challenge and taking from Peter to pay Paul, Pamela, Penny and Patrick.”
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