Why Getting Councils to Build Homes Again is Essential!

For me, one of the most important parts of the recent government announcement regarding the first allocation of funding from the £39bn Social and Affordable Homes Programme is the clear recognition that we need to get councils building homes again! 

And this couldn’t be more important if we really want to put roofs over the heads of those most in need.

For too long, housing policy has focused on squeezing the private rented sector and blaming landlords for providing homes, rather than tackling one of the fundamental problems we have: we simply haven’t built enough social and council homes for those who need them. In my view, that policy has failed.

And when you look at the history of housebuilding, it’s pretty obvious where one of the problems lies.

Just look at the chart below.

Source: GOV.UK Competition & Markets Authority Corporate Report 

The purple area shows local authority housebuilding – and the decline is pretty stark.

In fact, the CMA makes a really important point: the only periods when housebuilding in England and Wales approached or exceeded 300,000 homes a year were when significant numbers of homes were being built by local authorities.

Since the Second World War, private developers have typically delivered around 150,000 to 200,000 homes a year. Housing association building increased from the late 1970s, but according to the CMA, this wasn’t enough to make up for the large fall in the number of homes being built by local authorities.

So perhaps one of the lessons from our housing history is pretty simple: if we want to build substantially more homes – and particularly homes that people on low incomes can genuinely afford – we need councils building again.

And that’s why this latest announcement really matters.

The government isn’t just allocating money to housing associations and other providers; it is explicitly trying to put councils back at the heart of housebuilding:

• Councils will be given greater access to funding through the programme.
• They can now retain and reinvest all Right to Buy receipts in new social and affordable homes. In 2025/26 alone, these receipts amounted to £1.61bn.
• A further £46m over three years will help councils build the skills, expertise and capacity they need to deliver and acquire new council homes, including early-stage development support and specialist roles such as surveying and construction project management.

Key facts from the government press release are outlined below:

• The government is launching the first major wave of its £39 billion, ten-year Social and Affordable Homes Programme, with £9.58bn allocated to 33 Strategic Partners outside London.
• This first allocation is expected to support 73,600 new social and affordable homes over the next ten years.
• Nearly two-thirds of these homes are expected to be for Social Rent – the most affordable form of social housing, with rents typically well below private market rents.
• The release puts the scale of need into context: almost 180,000 children are currently growing up without a permanent home.
• The stated aim is therefore not simply to increase overall housebuilding, but to help families move out of temporary accommodation and provide more secure, genuinely affordable homes.
• Importantly, this is only the first stage. More than £16bn remains to be allocated outside London, with the government saying it intends to prioritise Social Rent and council housebuilding when allocating this money.

How much is your area going to receive? 

• Together, more than £2bn of this first funding allocation is expected to be spent in mayoral areas outside London, with mayoral authorities helping determine how investment reflects local priorities.
• Four further areas – Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, East Midlands, West of England, and York and North Yorkshire – will also be able to set the strategic direction of the programme following their designation as Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities.

And London gets a substantial allocation too

• The Greater London Authority intends to offer at least £6bn through the programme, reflecting what the release describes as the capital’s acute need for affordable housing.
• Councils are expected to deliver more than half of the homes funded in London, putting council housebuilding at the centre of the programme in the capital.

Less Talk, More Action When it comes to House Building!

Of course, announcing and allocating billions of pounds is one thing, actually getting tens of thousands of new social rent and council homes built is what really matters.

But after decades in which local authority housebuilding has fallen dramatically, this does at least look like a serious attempt to start reversing that trend and, hopefully, tackling one of the fundamental causes of our housing crisis rather than continuing to expect the private rented sector to solve it.