New social rented homes figure at highest for years as shared ownership starts fall
Homes started for social rent funded by Homes England have risen 43% year-on-year according to the agency’s housing statistics for the year to 31 March.
The data said there were 38,308 Homes England-funded starts of all tenures in the year, an increase of 4.8% on the year before. Affordable housing starts increased by 0.6% to 30,087.
Within that, social rented starts increased by 43% to 5,680. There was a corresponding 27% decrease in shared ownership and rent to buy starts to 2,800 and an 18% decrease in affordable rent starts to 2,665.
Total completions rose 15% to 28,370, with social rent completions rising 33% to 5,732.
The figures come weeks after the government announced a £39bn,10-year Affordable Homes Programme.
The government said this week that it aims to deliver 300,000 homes through the progamme with at least 60% for social rent. Ministers have pledged to prioritise the delivery of social rent over other social housing tenures such as affordable rent and shared ownership.
Meanwhile, housebuilding returned to growth according to the bellwether S&P Global UK Construction Purchasing Managers Index. The index, showed housebuilding edged back into the black with a score of 50.7, a jump from the 45.1 figure registered last time. Any score below this figure means contraction.
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