Orr: ‘penny has dropped’ for government on housing

“Two or three years ago, the penny dropped for government that just exorting the private sector to do more wasn’t going to do anything for them, so they thought we need someone to fill that gap,” said Mr Orr.

“They began having that conversation with us and believed it. The start of it was the voluntary deal [on the Right to Buy extension] because they thought, ‘Wait a minute these are people who are prepared to think properly and have a proper conversation’, and that made [the government] stop and think, ‘Maybe we are not getting this right’.”

Mr Orr added that “so much around is chaos” due to the ongoing Brexit negotiations that the government has become more willing to reach for easy solutions to domestic problems.

He said the Grenfell Tower fire had also been a factor in altering the government’s previous housing policy.

“People have said to me, ‘Isn’t it bad that this has only happened because of Grenfell?’, but if Grenfell had happened and we hadn’t had a policy response that would have been much worse,” he said.

Ms May also revealed today that £2bn of housing grant post-2022 will be reserved for long-term strategic partnerships with housing associations, a move Mr Orr praised.

“£2bn is helpful but the really important thing is it allows associations to make commitments about programmes that will last for two, three or five years,” he said. “I think that is a really important move.”

Mr Orr also warned that being backed so prominently by the government does create a risk to the sector, should it not deliver on the expectations ministers have.

He added: “That’s always a risk, if you ask for things and say ‘Do this and this and it will be easier for us to deliver’, that if your bluff gets called and you don’t deliver that’s not going to be good.

“But I do believe there is a lot of ambition in this sector.”