Sir Vince Cable has warned the Government not to “get carried away” with its latest affordable housing announcement, arguing that the first wave of funding remains small when set against the scale of England’s housing crisis.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has announced nearly £10bn of initial allocations from the Government’s 10-year, £39bn Social and Affordable Homes Programme, supporting more than 70,000 homes across England.
Thirty-three councils, housing associations and other providers have been selected as strategic partners by Homes England, receiving £9.58bn between them. Nearly two-thirds of homes delivered through those partnerships are expected to be for social rent.
The announcement comes with almost 180,000 children currently living without a permanent home, according to government figures.
‘DEVIL’S IN THE DETAIL’
Sir Vince Cable (mai picture, inset), chair of the independent Housing Policy and Delivery Oversight Committee, welcomes the investment but says the headline numbers need to be put into perspective.
He says: “Of course it’s good that Andy Burnham is announcing concrete steps to improve the housing stock and reduce the terrible levels of accommodation for so many families.
“Building is not just good for families it’s good for the economy. Construction workers employed along with suppliers, surveyors, lawyers, estate agents and the myriad of businesses that are involved in fitting out homes. Income earned helps the tax paid and the public finances.”
However, Cable argues that 70,000 homes spread over the programme’s 10-year life would equate to roughly 7,000 annually.
The latest official dwelling stock figures show England alone had 25.83m homes in March 2025, including around 4.2m social and affordable rented properties. England’s housing stock increased by around 209,000 homes during that year.
Cable says: “But let’s not get carried away. The numbers sound big. Until you analyse them.
“The new homes could amount to (broadly) 7,000 a year over the 10 year period of the funds. That is compared to more than 30.4 million homes, which is about 0.023 of the total. And 0.23% of population is about 16,000 people. Meanwhile the population increases by many times more than that each year. It’s single drop of rain on a parched field, although there are more funds to disburse later.”
The 70,000 figure does, however, relate only to this initial funding allocation rather than the entire £39bn programme, with further investment still to be allocated over its lifetime.
HYDE TO DELIVER 2,250 MORE HOMES
Hyde is among the organisations appointed as a Homes England strategic partner and says the funding will enable it to deliver more than 2,250 additional homes outside London.
Andy Hulme, Group Chief Executive Officer of Hyde, says: “The country desperately needs more genuinely affordable and good quality homes, and we welcome the government’s commitment to supporting us in meeting this challenge.
“As a not-for-profit housing provider that owns or manages around 130,000 homes and provides neighbourhood services to around 350,000 homes, we see the impact on people every single day of not having a permanent home through the uncertainty and anxiety it causes.
“Today’s funding rightly supports a significant increase in new homes for social rent, which we strongly welcome. It’s good news for those people in need of a home, for communities looking to thrive and for growth in the wider economy.”
‘LONG, LONG WAY TO GO’
The Government is also attempting to put councils more directly back into housebuilding, including through a new £21.8m Council Housebuilding Support Fund designed to increase local authority development capacity.
Cable nevertheless questions whether a succession of individual announcements yet amounts to a sufficiently comprehensive housing strategy.
He says: “The one off announcements we have heard over the summer do not result in a fully joined up policy. And already the money announced today has been watered down so it will not all go to ‘council’ housing. There will be mixture of social and affordable housing.
“Overall this is one cheer territory. A start but a long, long way to go.”
Hulme adds: “We also need to be clear that allocating the remaining funding and continuing to work to remove barriers to deliver, such as delays in the planning system and giving charitable providers like Hyde long-term certainty and appropriate resources, remain vitally important.”
