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Autumn Budget 2024: Reeves confirms AHP cash and £3bn in guarantees for small house builders
Rachel Reeves has confirmed a top-up for the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP), a five-year rent settlement and Right to Buy reforms, alongside an additional £3bn in guarantees to support small house builders.
Delivering her first Budget, the chancellor reiterated a number of important announcements for the sector in recent weeks, including targeting small private house builders and build-to-rent developers, and new brownfield regeneration funding.
Taken together, the funds bring the government’s total investment in housing supply to more than £5bn next year, according to the Treasury.
As previously promised, Right to Buy discounts will be reduced, while councils will be able to retain the full receipts from the sale of homes to reinvest in new stock.
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Social housing providers will be given a rent settlement of Consumer Price Index (CPI) plus 1% for the next five years.
Ms Reeves said: “Today I am providing over £5bn of government investment to deliver our plans on housing next year.
“We will increase the Affordable Homes Programme to £3.1bn, delivering thousands of new homes.
“We will provide £3bn worth of support in guarantees, to boost the supply of homes and support our small house builders.
“And we will provide investment to renovate sites across the country, including at Liverpool Central Docks where we will deliver 2,000 new homes and funding to help Cambridge realise its full growth potential.”
Budget documents revealed that the £3bn referred to “additional support for SMEs and the build-to-rent sector, in the form of housing guarantee schemes, to support the private housing market.”
A £500m top-up to the AHP was confirmed by the Treasury on Monday.
Ms Reeves continued: “Having heard representations from local authorities, social housing providers and from Shelter, I can today confirm that the government will reduce Right to Buy discounts and local authorities will be able to retain the full receipts from any sales of social housing, so that we can reinvest them back into the housing stock and into new supply.”
England’s existing social housing supply is depleted every year by the Right to Buy scheme, while also disincentivising councils to build new social housing.
Discounts will be reduced alongside greater protections for newly built social housing and councils will be able to keep 100% of the receipts generated by a Right to Buy sale.
The chancellor continued: “We will provide stability to social housing providers, with a social housing rent settlement of CPI+1% for the next five years.”
A long-term rent settlement has been the cornerstone of lobbying demands from housing providers, which have said it is essential to improve their finances and maintain investment in existing stock.
Previously announced brownfield funding included £56m to unlock 2,000 new homes at Liverpool Central Docks, along with a £25m investment in a new joint venture to deliver 3,000 new homes across the country, with a target of 100% of these being affordable.
The Budget also confirmed £47m of funding to support the delivery of up to 28,000 homes that would otherwise be stalled due to nutrient neutrality in affected areas.
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