Further details of the Social and Affordable Homes Programme revealed

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Alongside a raft of wider announcements, the Government last week provided additional details on the future of grant funding for affordable housebuilding. The next grant-funding programme had already been announced at the spending review, but taken together with last week’s announcements, we now have a clearer idea of what the next programme will look like.

The next programme will be renamed the “Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP)” and:

  • Will deliver a total of £39 billion over ten years from 2026 – this is almost double the current level of per year spending (£3.9 billion vs £2.3 billion).
  • At least 60% of the total funding will be for social rent.
  • 70% of the funding will be outside of London reflecting a shift of funding to other areas of the country, like the North.
  • Will support regeneration sites where they provide a net increase of homes on a site, maintaining the regeneration flexibilities introduced into the current programme in 2023.
  • Strategic partnerships will continue through a competitive bidding round opening this winter, including bids for the entire ten-year programme.
  • Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities will be able to set the strategic direction of the programme in their respective areas but there will be no ring-fenced funding allocation for specific regions outside of London.
  • There will no longer be any targets for the delivery of specific types of homes e.g. rural or supported housing.

While we now know a lot about the next programme, there are still areas where we await further detail, including grant rates, how Homes England will work in its new ‘more regional model’, and exactly how strategic authorities will be able to influence programme delivery in their areas. We hope that these details and more will be provided in the SAHP prospectus, due to be published this Autumn.

The Northern Housing Consortium welcomes many of these details and many of them were included in our submission to the Spending Review, including the ability of strategic authorities to influence programme delivery in their areas, the continuation of regeneration flexibilities and ten-year strategic partnerships. We will continue to work with our members and government officials to ensure that the final SAHP prospectus reflects the needs of the North as much as possible.