The government will need to radically step up its investment in affordable housing if it is to have any chance of hitting its ambitious target of building 300,000 homes a year from the mid-2020s, according to a new report from Savills.

Government funding for affordable homes is currently running at just 12% of a home’s building cost, down from 50% before the financial crash of 2007/08. But if ministers were to bump that up again it would add to, rather than displace existing investment from the private sector, Savills argued.