Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 31
31
Accepted
Stakeholders advocate reforms, funding consolidation, and partnerships to boost affordable housing supply
Recommendation
Many of the written submissions that we received focused on housing supply. The Chartered Institute of Housing, for example, made the case for increasing the supply of quality homes at social rents via government grant, because it would reduce overall government spending on benefits.44 The Local Government Association suggested steps to help councils increase housing supply, including: reforming Right to Buy rules to prevent further loss of stock; allowing local government continued access to preferential borrowing rates; and combining funding from multiple national housing programmes into a single pot.45 And Centrepoint advocated support for community housing initiatives and public-private partnerships to expand the stock of affordable rental homes.46
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the recommendation, committing to publishing a housing strategy after the Spending Review 2025 to increase housing supply and affordability, and notes Homes England's ongoing work to design a new Affordable Homes Programme.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
6.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: after Spending Review 2025 6.2 In 2023-24 Homes England exceeded their housing delivery targets by enabling the completion of 32,320 homes against a target of 29,641, facilitating the start of construction for an additional 35,676 homes against a target of 32,967 and unlocked land that is capable of delivering 26,273 further homes against a target of 25,788. 6.3 In terms of affordable housing, Homes England had a target of 19,500 completions in 2023-24 but exceeded this by achieving 22,115 completions. Homes England are currently working with MHCLG officials to design the new AHP programme with new targets set to match the government’s ambition and reflect current market conditions. 6.4 MHCLG will publish a housing strategy which will set out a long-term vision for a housing market that works for communities, builds 1.5 million high-quality homes, and the biggest increase in affordable housing for a generation. It will include the actions that government will take to reach this vision, building on the announcements already made, and providing long-term certainty for the market.