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Extra £350m top-up for Affordable Homes Programme and temporary housing
An additional £350m will be injected into existing affordable housing programmes to keep development going until the Spending Review in June.
The current Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) will receive an additional £300m top-up, while the Local Authority Housing Fund (LAHF) will receive a £50m boost, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has announced.
MHCLG expects the AHP top-up to deliver up to 2,800 homes, half of which will be for social rent. Meanwhile, the LAHF boost will provide more than 250 council homes for people in need of better-quality temporary accommodation.
Inside Housing has asked the government if Homes England has been given additional flexibility around grant rates to ensure the 50% social rent target can be delivered.
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The latest AHP top-up follows a £500m boost announced in October, which is expected to provide 5,000 more affordable homes.
The existing AHP runs from 2021-26 and was originally set by the previous Conservative government. It is expected to deliver 130,000 homes by 2026.
Labour has promised a new multi-year AHP that will replace the existing scheme, but details are tied to the government’s Spending Review, which sets spending limits for each department. The Spending Review was set to take place in March, but was later pushed to June.
Alongside the £50m increase to the LAHF, approximately £30m of funding is being reallocated from previous rounds, taking the number of houses that will be delivered by the third round to more than 2,700 homes.
Councils that have submitted applications will be contacted in the following few days to inform them of the funding allocations.
Alongside the extra funding, MHCLG said it would set out changes “imminently” to crack down on “exploitative behaviour” by rogue and criminal supported housing landlords, which are costing the taxpayer by claiming uncapped housing benefit in return for providing “squalid homes for the most vulnerable”.
A new licensing scheme, tougher standards and the ability to stop housing benefit going to rogue landlords are all part of the plan, which is to be unveiled next week.
The supported housing reforms implement measures in the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023.
Angela Rayner, deputy prime minister and housing secretary, said: “For so many families and their children, the security and safety of a home of their own remains firmly out of reach – and instead they have to live in temporary accommodation, including in B&Bs.
“This is unacceptable and is the result of the housing crisis we are facing head on. That’s why we’re driving forward on our plans to ensure a better future for everyone who needs a safe home, building on our plans to drive up living standards and build 1.5 million homes through our Plan for Change.”
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