3 days ago
London housing: Social homes plan to help capital's crisis
The government has announced that 300,000 homes will be built across the country in the next 10 years through the new £39bn Social and Affordable Homes Programme, with at least 180,000 for social rent. Up to £11.7bn of the funding has been allocated to the capital, which was welcomed by Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan, who said there was "a long way to go to fix the housing crisis in London".The capital is facing an acute housing crisis, with about one in 49 Londoners living in temporary accommodation. There are concerns the government's target will not be met due to a shortage of staff and materials in the construction industry, with a recent 66% drop in affordable homes being built in London.
Under the Social and Affordable Homes Programme, the government hopes to deliver 300,000 homes in total, 60% of which will be social did not specify what the other 40% will comprise of, but previously confirmed it would "fund other kinds of homes including shared ownership and affordable rent".
The current affordable homes programme ends in 2026, but there are existing concerns about the number of homes being built. In May, G15 - the group representing the largest housing associations in London - said there had been a 66% drop in new affordable homes built in the last two a report, it urged "swift action" in the face of a "deepening housing crisis".It said 4,708 new home builds started in 2024–25, down from 13,744 two years earlier. Between January and March this year there was a 7% drop in new-build starts, compared with the same period in 2023, G15 said.
Meanwhile, Centre for London said the capital was "the epicentre of the housing crisis"."We are home to 50% of England's temporary accommodation population, despite only 15% of the population living in the capital," said the think tank's chief executive Antonia Jennings."Rent in London is 60% higher than the English average. And we have 366,000 Londoners on the social housing waiting list – larger than the household population of Leeds."Sir Sadiq said he continued to work closely with the government to "secure even more national support to help build the level of new housing London needs". "This includes investment in transport infrastructure, which would unlock thousands of new homes in the capital," he government said it was determined to "tackle the acute and entrenched housing crisis".
Experts have also warned that while social and affordable homes are needed, the capital faces problems in their housing regulations, lack of construction workers and materials, and housing associations not having the funds to buy more stock, will make the government target difficult to meet, said Christine Whitehead, Professor of Housing Economics at the London School of Economics.
Shadow housing minister David Simmons said: "We need to make sure that it is delivered in practice. "Bringing that confidence back to the market is the most important thing to address London's housing challenge."The feedback from the development sector, from the builders, from the suppliers of building materials, from across the skills sector, is that this is a difficult, if not impossible challenge."He added that it was about "the right kind of supply"."We know there are lots of people who not only need social homes, but want to get their first foot on the property ladder, and we need to make sure that there's that diversity," he said.
More than 70,000 homeless households in London are currently living in temporary residences provided by their local council, often a hostel or budget hotel room with limited from east London, has been in temporary accommodation with her 17-year-old son for the last 21 said more action needed to be taken now."I'm living in a hotel and I'm seeing so many families," she said. "We have no cooking facilities or washing facilities."You're in one room. There's a knock-on effect on education. It affects everything."
'Vital step'
Housing charity Shelter argued that to clear waiting lists and end the use of temporary accommodation, the government needed to build 90,000 new social homes a year for the next decade - five times the figure Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner committed MacRae, Shelter's director of campaigns, said the focus on social housing was "a vital step in tackling the housing emergency and getting homelessness under control", but urged the government to do more.
Rayner, who is also the Secretary of State for Housing, said the government's plans to build 180,000 new social homes in the next decade would "turn the tide on the housing crisis".The deputy prime minister called on the social housing sector to "work together to turn the tide on the housing crisis together" adding that the investment was "the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation".
