Clive Betts – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Betts on 2015-11-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of social rented homes that will be completed in (a) 2015-16 and (b) each of the succeeding four years.

Brandon Lewis

Through the Spending Review the Government has committed to investing £8 billion to deliver over 400,000 affordable housing starts, doubling our investment in affordable housing from 2018-19.

This includes £1.7 billion to deliver around 100,000 homes for affordable or intermediate rent. Already through the 2015-18 Affordable Homes programme we have allocated over £1 billion to deliver affordable housing, with the majority being for rented housing.

Since April 2010 we have delivered over 260,000 affordable homes. Under Labour the stock of affordable homes fell by 420,000, with 1.8 million families on social housing waiting lists. More council housing has been built since 2010 than in the previous 13 years of a Labour Government.

The funding allocated to housing associations and local authorities will depend on the bids submitted to the Affordable Homes programme.