Affordable housing supply sees marginal uptick, but pressure remains
According to the latest statistics from Homes England on housing starts and completions, the number of affordable housing starts in the financial year 2024 to 2025 was 30,087, up slightly by 0.6% on the previous year.
For the same period, affordable housing completion levels reached 28,370, up 15% on the previous year.
John Guest, National Head of Social Housing at RSM UK, said: “While it is encouraging to see a marginal increase in the number of affordable housing starts, it’s clear to see the pressure facing the sector. However, off the back of the government’s spending review, which saw the biggest investment in affordable and social housing for years, there is some cautious optimism that this will help drive activity, ensure viability of projects and incentivise businesses to build. There’s also a general feeling that government investment will help to unlock additional funding from private investors, as the government’s funding will only go so far and demand for affordable housing presents a key opportunity for investors.
“Additionally, registered providers of social housing (RSLs) have the challenge of maintaining quality of stock, alongside keeping up with demand for new homes. But, private investors could help create a multiplier effect by injecting capital into development projects, enabling RSLs to scale up construction, leverage public funding more effectively, and continue to improve existing stock. Establishing successful partnerships between the public and private sector is key to unlocking more housebuilding.”
He added: “We’ve already seen this in practice with the JV North consortium of housing associations and local authorities, which has appointed a number of new contractors this week to its procurement framework to deliver 3,000 homes between 2025 and 2029. This framework demonstrates how collaboration can help to overcome planning challenges, with last week’s announcement of the Infrastructure Strategy further strengthening the removal of red tape and focused on accelerating delivery.”