Affordable Housing Starts Fall By A Fifth, Homes England Data Shows

 In the year to 31 March 2021, the number of affordable homes started through Homes England programmes fell from 35,809 to 28,191 due to pressure placed on the housing industry by the coronavirus pandemic, the agency said. Total housing starts also fell by 22% from 47,965 to 37,330, while completions fell 13% from 40,452 to 34,995. The figures represent an improvement on the number of housing starts recorded half way through the year, which were down 38% compared with the year before. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/affordable-housing-starts-fall-by-a-fifth-homes-england-data-shows-71250

Affordable Housing: Construction – Parliamentary Written Answer

Lord Jones of Cheltenham: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to maintain the use of section 106 agreements to deliver affordable housing.

Lord Greenhalgh: The Government’s White Paper, Planning for the Future proposes that a new ‘Infrastructure Levy’ will replace section 106 planning obligations and the Community Infrastructure Levy and be set in a way which delivers at least as much - if not more - onsite affordable housing than at present. It also proposes that the Levy will be payable on the completion of development. To better support the timely delivery of infrastructure, local authorities would be allowed to borrow against Infrastructure Levy revenues so that they could forward fund infrastructure.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Lords/2020-12-07/HL11139

Number Of Affordable Home Starts In London Fell By 66% During Pandemic

The number of affordable homes started under programmes managed by the Greater London Authority (GLA) fell by 66% between April and September this year compared to 2019 figures. A total of 1,634 affordable homes were started in the capital in the first six months of 2020/21 as part of GLA-managed programmes, compared with 4,874 in the first six months of 2019/20. Of the 1,634 affordable homes started in the six months leading up to September, 782 (48%) were for shared ownership or London Living Rent, 727 (44%) were for social rent or London Affordable Rent and 125 (8%) were for another affordable rent tenure. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/number-of-affordable-homes-starts-in-london-fell-by-66-during-pandemic-68587?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Rural Social Housing Crisis ‘Left Behind’

Over half (58%) of rural local authorities’ waiting lists for social housing have grown between 2018 and 2019, according to analysis of the government’s own housing figures. According to a new report by CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England), the backlog in unmet demand for social housing is continuing to grow year on year, with hundreds fewer genuinely affordable houses delivered last year compared to the year before. According to reports, in 2018/19, a little over 1,000 social homes were delivered across 91 rural local authorities in England. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/rural-social-housing-crisis-left-behind-report-reveals/

Over 13,500 Affordable Homes ‘Lost Through Office Conversions’

Communities could have lost out on more than 13,500 desperately needed affordable homes in the past four years as a result of rules allowing offices to be converted into housing without planning permission, new LGA analysis has revealed. In some parts of the country, office conversions carried out under the permitted development right – which allows homes to be created without going through the planning system – amount to almost half of all new housing. This means communities have no way to ensure developers meet high-quality standards, provide any affordable homes as part of the development or ensure supporting infrastructure such as roads, schools, and health services are in place. Read more on the LGA website.

https://www.local.gov.uk/lga-over-13500-affordable-homes-lost-through-office-conversions

Affordable Homes, UC Advice And Calls For Rental Minister

The House of Commons Library has published a briefing paper considering how affordable housing is defined in England.  It examines the supply of affordable housing and the role of Housing Benefit in allowing families to access and keep affordable housing. The paper states: “Home ownership has been difficult to access in recent years, particularly for first-time buyers, while access to social housing is constrained by a lack of supply. The private rented sector has been the beneficiary and now houses more households than the social rented sector. Private sector rent levels in high pressure areas have increased in response to demand.” Download the paper from the Library.

https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-7747

Private Investors Could ‘Tackle’ Annual Shortage Of 60,000 Affordable Homes

According to the new report, 46,000 affordable homes have been built per year in England since 2013, however this, according to Savills, is around 60,000 homes short of what is needed each year. Savills believes that for-profit registered providers are becoming attractive options for institutional investors looking to provide long-term investment in housing. The report states that the growth in large-scale investment in residential real estate in the UK has been “one of the foremost trends across the whole real estate asset class”. It states that affordable housing is one of the biggest opportunities for housing investment, with favourable long-term returns on investment and potential for growth. Read more on the Savills website.

https://www.savills.co.uk/research_articles/229130/293448-0

Increase In Affordable Homes Failing To Offset Private Sector Decline

The number of new homes to be built for those in the affordable and rental sector in the UK continues to rise significantly but these gains have failed to offset the decline in the private sector registrations, according to the latest NHBC figures. 3,875 new homes were registered in the affordable and rental sector in August, a 17% increase year-on-year, whilst home registrations in the private sector fell 20% to 8,420. The overall number of new homes registered to be built by builders and developers across the UK in the month was down 10% compared to August 2018. Read more on the Property Reporter website.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/property/increase-in-affordable-homes-failing-to-offset-private-sector-decline.html

Social Housing Crisis Builds As Government Passes The Buck

Thousands of homeless children are growing up in cheaply converted shipping containers and cramped rooms in former office blocks; 130,000 families in England are being crammed into one-bedroom flats; and social housing residents of a block of flats in east London engulfed in flames say they are being forced to move back despite safety fears. These are just a few recent examples of how the UK housing crisis is affecting the country’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens. But how much notice is the prime minister, Boris Johnson, taking? He has made spending pledges for the NHS and police, but there is little to suggest Johnson will address the UK’s shortage of truly affordable homes for rent. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/sep/25/social-housing-crisis-builds-government-passes-buck

Put People Before Process When Allocating Social Housing

Rules and processes designed to decide who gets access to social housing could be failing those in greatest need, according to new research from the Chartered Institute of Housing. In Rethinking Allocations, the CIH found that, faced with not enough genuinely affordable homes, councils and housing associations are forced to ration the housing they have – and that the way they allocate these homes can exclude some very vulnerable people. There are at least four million households in England waiting for social housing, and this number is growing all the time. Download the report from the CIH website.

http://www.cih.org/resources/Rethinking%20allocations.pdf

Planning Permission Granted For Living Wage Housing

Conran and Partners have received planning approval for 104 new affordable homes to be built in Brighton and Hove to tackle the city’s housing crisis. The proposed 7-storey scheme represents the project in a series of innovative new housing developments which aim to tackle the housing crisis through the ‘Homes for Brighton & Hove’ initiative – a partnership between Brighton & Hove City Council and the Hyde Group – set up to create 1,000 new homes for rent and sale for lower-income, local working households in the city. The council-owned site will deliver 100% of the new homes as affordable. Read more on the PBCT website.

https://www.pbctoday.co.uk/news/planning-construction-news/planning-permission-brighton/63221/

Unsold Shared Ownership Units At Highest Level In A Decade

The number of affordable homeownership units left unsold at the end of the first quarter (2019/20) was at the highest level in 10 years, with around half in London and the South East, a report from the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has shown. Covering the three months to the end of June 2019, the quarterly survey also shows that new finance facilities agreed were at the lowest level for a single quarter during the past two years. Download a copy of the survey results from the GovUK website.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/quarterly-survey-for-q1-april-to-june-2019-to-2020

New Housing Statistics Show Increase In Affordable Homes

Homes England has published its latest annual housing statistics, which show a significant increase in the number of affordable homes being built in England. Between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2019, there were 45,692 new houses started on site under programmes managed by Homes England and 40,289 houses completed. These are the highest levels of starts for nine years and the highest levels of completions for four years. Of the starts on site, 30,563 (67%) were for affordable homes, a 10 per cent increase on 2017-18. These are the highest numbers of affordable home starts for five years. Similarly, 28,710 (71%) of housing completions in 2018-19 were for affordable homes which is an 11 per cent increase on 2017-18 figures and the highest numbers for four years. Read more on the Homes England website.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-housing-statistics-show-increase-in-affordable-homes

Hike Second Homes Tax And Build On Green Belt, Says MP

The government should allow affordable homes to be built on “scrappy” land that has been “wrongly designated” as green belt and hike the stamp duty surcharge on people buying additional homes, one Labour MP has claimed. Labour MP for Mitcham and Morden Siobhain McDonagh railed against ministers for failing to tackle the housing crisis and dubbed their record on creating social homes “diabolical”, before setting out her own radical plan of action. She said: “First, it is time to burst the myth that the green belt is green and start using the non-green sites for homes. There are garage sites, waste plants and deserted scrublands all posing as green-belt land.” Read more on the Mortgage Strategy website.

https://www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk/hike-second-homes-tax-and-build-on-green-belt-says-mp/

Affordable Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many affordable houses have been built in the UK in the last 12 months.

Kit Malthouse: In 2017-18 47,355 affordable homes were completed, an increase of 12 per cent on the previous year, of these over 7,100 (15 per cent) were in London. Details for homes delivered in 2018 -19 will be published in the Departments annual Affordable Housing Supply statistics.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2019-06-06/261275

£500m Scheme Faces Rejection Over Lack Of Affordable Homes

A proposal for a £500 million redevelopment in Bermondsey looks set to be thrown out because of its lack of affordable housing. The project would provide up to 1,342 private rented sector flats, plus 10,000m² of office space, retail and leisure space and a replacement secondary school, all in buildings up to 28 storeys high.  But planners said the applicant had failed to reach an agreement on ‘critical issues’ including the affordable housing and the quality of some of the homes. The affordable housing offer would be in the form of discounted rent, with just over a quarter (27.5 per cent) of the units let at 25 per cent below market rents. Read more on the Architect’s Journal website.

https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/kpfs-500m-bermondsey-scheme-faces-rejection-over-lack-of-affordable-homes/10039443.article

Just 5 Per Cent Of New Homes To Be Built With Government Money Will Be Most Affordable Type

Just 5 per cent of homes to be built with government money will be the most affordable type of housing despite the prime minister’s pledge to build a “new generation of social homes“, ministers have admitted. The government said only 12,500 of the 250,000 homes to be built with the affordable homes budget by 2022 will be social homes – equivalent to 2,500 per year. The other 237,500 are likely to be more costly “affordable homes”, which can be sold for hundreds of thousands of pounds or rented out at up to 80 per cent of full market value. Read more on the Independent website.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/government-housing-social-homes-spending-5-per-cent-affordable-council-theresa-may-conference-a8689591.html

Six Times More Affordable Homes Built Than Are Traded Or Sold

The asset management approach of housing associations means six times as many new sub-market rented homes are built as are sold, Savills’ research reveals. The findings come after housing associations received criticism in some media for selling social housing out of the sector for non-social housing use. Savills also found that the number of homes traded between social housing providers has fallen 50% in the past six years. As a result, Savills suggests “stock rationalisation should be higher on the agenda” to maximise financial capacity to build more affordable homes. Read more on the Savills website.

https://www.savills.co.uk/research_articles/229130/272268-0

More Than 2,000 Villages Overlooked For Affordable Homes

More than 2,000 villages are missing out on new affordable homes because they are classified as “unsuitable for growth” by the local planning process, new research reveals. The CLA analysed 70 Local Plans from the most rural local authorities to find 2,154 villages across England are judged to be unsustainable – meaning housing allocation, including the delivery of affordable homes in these communities, is either highly restricted or not permitted, further exacerbating the rural housing crisis. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/more-than-2000-villages-overlooked-for-affordable-homes/

Homes England Launches Phase Two Of Community Housing Fund

Phase Two of the Community Housing Fund is launched by Homes England making £163m available for affordable homes across England. The fund is for community-led groups to drive forward ambitions for delivering new affordable housing schemes. Phase One of the fund was launched in July, supporting applications for capacity building, pre-development revenue funding and capital funding for local infrastructure projects. Phase Two bidding is now open for capital grants to fund the costs of acquiring land and building community-led housing schemes. The fund aims to give local people a leading and lasting role in delivering local affordable housing. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/homes-england-launches-phase-two-of-community-housing-fund/