In her Spring Statement, Chancellor Rachel Reeves discussed how government spending will achieve the government’s promise to deliver 1.5 million homes by 2029, largely through grant funding top-ups and planning reforms. 

The chancellor announced that an additional £2 billion will be invested into grant funding for social and affordable housing. This is estimated to deliver 18,000 new social and affordable homes and will be supported by a £600m investment into building construction skills in the workforce. This may be considered to be ‘bridging the gap’ between the government’s current affordable homes programme, implemented by the Conservative party, and Labour’s new programme, which is expected to be announced at the party’s Spending Review on 11 June.  

The Chancellor explained that 1.3 million of their promised homes will be built due to the planning reforms alone. At the heart of the planning reforms is the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which passed its second reading in Parliament on 22 March. For further details of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, please see our insight, The Planning and Infrastructure Bill: An Overview of the Key Features. 

Among the measures to be taken to achieve the promised 1.5 million new homes, the Chancellor highlighted the importance of housing targets which will be set for councils and newly designated ‘grey sites. Whilst brownfield sites will continue to be prioritised for new homes as part of the government’s new planning framework, ministers have acknowledged that these will not be enough. To enable Labour to hit their new home targets, ‘grey belt’ land, being lower quality previously designated green belt land, will need to be identified and ultimately built on.  

Not only are these changes essential to Labour delivering on their promise to build 1.5 million new homes, the OBR has estimated that such reforms will permanently increase the level of real GDP by 0.2% and add an additional £6.8 billion into the economy. 

Looking to the future, the government’s spending review on 11 June is expected to provide further updates on their plans to facilitate improvements in the social and affordable housing sector, including details of the new affordable homes programme.   

How Capsticks can help  

Capsticks’ housing team provides a full service to over 200 registered providers, with expertise in all social housing needs, from development and regeneration, planning and security charging, to housing management and asset management.

Please speak to Susie Rogers or Darren Hooker, to find out more about how Capsticks can help.