Labour wants to build 300,000 affordable and social homes in 10 years. But is it enough?

The Labour government say it is aiming to build 300,000 affordable and social homes over the next decade following its £39 billion housebuilding boost announced at last month’s spending review.

While under-fire in the House of Commons over proposed disability benefit cuts, ministers revealed that they hope the financial package will deliver around 180,000 social rent homes, making up 60% of the total.

Housing campaigners have long called for 90,000 social rent homes to be built each year in a bid to rein in record-high rents, unaffordable house prices and a housing crisis that has left more than 165,000 children across England growing up in temporary accommodation.

Housing secretary Angela Rayner said the move would deliver a “social rent revolution” with more than six times the social rent homes built than in the last decade up to 2024.

“We are seizing this golden opportunity with both hands to transform this country by building the social and affordable homes we need, so we create a brighter future where families aren’t trapped in temporary accommodation and young people are no longer locked out of a secure home,” said the deputy prime minister.

“With investment and reform, this government is delivering the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation, unleashing a social rent revolution, and embarking on a decade of renewal for social and affordable housing in this country.   

“That’s why I am urging everyone in the social housing sector to step forward with us now to make this vision a reality, to work together to turn the tide on the housing crisis together and deliver the homes and living standards people deserve through our Plan for Change.”   

Labour has faced calls to set out how many social homes it hoped to build ever since chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the “biggest cash injection into social housing in 50 years” at the spending review on 11 June.

Big Issue ambassador Kwajo Tweneboa has been leading the calls for the government to set out social housing delivery targets.

He told Big Issue last month: “The longer the government avoids giving us a social housing target, the longer 1.3 million households are stuck on waiting lists across the country with no end in sight.”

Rayner has previously rejected calls to set social housing delivery targets despite the reintroduction of mandatory housing targets, tasking councils with building 370,000 homes a year.

Read more:

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• Why for-profit social housing might be the uneasy answer to deliver the homes Britain needs
• Labour could build 500,000 social homes ‘at a stretch’ with £39bn affordable housing pledge

Rayner said in January it “would be foolish of her” to set targets as the amount of social housing delivered would depend on land and councils’ local plans.

The government said it would meet with the social housing sector in the coming months to agree a joint-overall target on how many social and affordable homes can be delivered overall.

Ministers said on Tuesday (1 July) that the government has an ambition to deliver 300,000 social and affordable homes across the decade.

They argued the investment would “unlock new jobs and turn the tide of the entrenched housing crisis”.

Homes England – the government’s housing and regeneration agency – will be responsible for delivering the majority of the £39bn funding with up to £11.7bn being used to support the Greater London Authority to deliver homes in the English capital.

Tweneboa told Big Issue: “Around 18,000 social homes is nowhere near enough to even begin tackling this crisis. On average more 58,000 new households join council waiting lists, that’s over three times more than the number of homes they’re promising to build.

“In 1957, after the war, we were building 220,000 council homes per year. The government in their own words have said this is the biggest housing crisis since World War II. In that case 18,000 social homes per year should be treated as an insult when it comes to turning the tide on this crisis. I’m disappointed and I will not lie about that. I expected more from this government.”

The last five-year programme averaged a £2.3bn per year spend on affordable homes between 2021-26. The government said the new investment means that spending will almost double by the end of this parliament to £4bn in 2029-30.  

Just 9,866 social homes were built in England last year, according to government statistics. But 17,589 social homes were either sold or demolished, leading to a net loss of 7,723 social homes. Over the past 10 years there has been a net loss of 180,067 social homes.

Mairi MacRae, director of campaigns and policy at Shelter, said: “For decades we’ve watched our social housing stock plummet through past governments neglect, all the while homelessness has skyrocketed. Focussing funding for the affordable homes programme on social rent, with rents tied to local incomes, is a vital step in tackling the housing emergency and getting homelessness under control.

“It’s good to see the government taking the housing emergency seriously. Now they must go further and ramp up building to 90,000 social rent homes a year – this means getting tough on developers, supporting councils to get building and having a clear, overall social rent target for all delivery.”

Labour is also set to publish a long-term plan – Delivering a Decade of Renewal for Social and Affordable Housing – on Wednesday (2 July), setting out how it aims to boost housebuilding and the safety and quality of homes.

The plan will also include measures to modernise the decent homes standard and explain how minimum energy efficiency standards will be implemented for the first time in the social housing sector.

Changes to the Right to Buy scheme alongside other measures to protect social housing stock will also be included.

Chartered Institute of Housing chief executive Gavin Smart said the announcements give the social housing sector the “clarity and certainty” it needs to ramp up housebuilding.

Crisis chief executive Matt Downie said the government “recognises the transformative role social housing plays in communities, giving everyone the chance of a safe, secure home which is the foundation for a better future”.

Kate Henderson, National Housing Federation chief executive, added: “The government’s announcements today put in place the building blocks needed to deliver a decade of social housing renewal.

“We stand ready to deliver on this ambitious plan and will work in partnership with the government on the detail of these proposals to ensure that our sector has the financial confidence to deliver on this decade of growth and renewal.”

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