Chancellor Rachel Reeves billed the investment as the ‘biggest boost in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation’ as she visited a housing site with Angela Rayner
Up to 18,000 new social and affordable homes will be built with a £2billion cash injection, ministers have announced.
Rachel Reeves and Angela Rayner said the move will form part of the government’s election vow to build 1.5million new homes by 2029. The Chancellor billed the investment as the “biggest boost in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation”.
On a joint visit to a housing site in Stoke-On-Trent, Ms Rayner added the cash “will help us to build thousands more affordable homes to buy and rent”. The Housing Secretary said too many people are currently locked out of home ownership “thanks to the housing crisis we’ve inherited” from the Tories.
The Treasury said spades will be in the ground in places such as Manchester and Liverpool by 2027 with the homes completed by the end of the decade.
The housing charity Shelter, which has argued 90,000 new social homes are needed each year, described the move as a “positive step towards tackling the housing emergency”.
Chief executive Polly Neate said: “But with homelessness at record levels, it’s vital that the majority of this funding is directed towards social rent housing, not expensive alternatives that won’t help struggling families. For too long, we’ve been throwing billions into grim temporary accommodation for families experiencing homelessness and so-called ‘affordable’ homes like shared ownership, which are completely out of reach for those on low incomes.
“Meanwhile, families have been forced into extortionate private rentals, pushed into debt, or left homeless in grotty B&Bs and hostels.”
Matt Downie, the chief executive of Crisis, added: “Today’s announcement is hugely welcome. We hope this signals the beginning of a social housebuilding programme that will radically shift this country’s response to homelessness, putting housing at the heart of the solution.”
The announcement comes as Ms Reeves gears up to deliver the Spring Statement on Wednesday with grim economic figures expected from the Office for Budget Responsibility. Over the weekend she revealed around 10,000 civil service jobs will be axed in a bid to save cash and last week announced £5billion in cuts to sickness and disability benefits.
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Speaking on Monday, Cabinet minister Heidi Alexander insisted Labour was “not returning to austerity” – as she pointed to last year’s NHS cash boost.
She added: “We need to give the public better bang for their buck in the delivery of public services. But to say that this is some sort of return to austerity is just not true. We increased public spending by £290billion last year.”
But asked by BBC 5Live if cuts were coming for unprotected government departments, Mr Starmer said: “Well, we’re looking across the board. At the Budget last year we made some record investments, and we’re not going to undo that. So, for example, we put a record amount into the NHS that’s just delivered five months’ worth of waiting lists coming down five months in a row during the winter. That’s really good.”
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He added: “So we’re not going to alter the basics, but we are going to look across and one of the areas that we will be looking at is, can we run the government more efficiently? Can we take some money out of Government?”
While no major tax changes are expected in Wednesday’s Spring Statement a poll found 77% would rather ministers increase taxes on the super-rich to improve the nation’s finances – than see cuts to public spending. The survey by YouGov for the charity Oxfam also found 78% would be in favour of a wealth tax of 2% on assets worth more than £10million to raise billions for the Treasury.
Anna Marriott, Oxfam senior policy advisor, said: “This is not about scarcity, it’s about political choices. The government claims there’s no alternative but to take money from the people struggling the most, both here and around the world; yet there is a huge amount of potential revenue that they refuse to consider.
“This money could be used to reduce poverty, inequalities and also strengthen public services instead of piling up in the pockets of the super-rich.”
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