Government urges councils to accelerate council housebuilding

The full picture

This article discusses a government initiative in the United Kingdom aimed at increasing the construction of council homes. Councils are being encouraged to boost their ambitions for building more affordable housing and are receiving initial funding support from the Social and Affordable Homes Programme. The government is also collecting information from councils to better target future assistance.

The UK government has written to all council leaders, calling on councils to go further and faster in building council homes.[1] The letter announces the first allocations from the Social and Affordable Homes Programme and additional funding intended to strengthen skills and capacity within councils.[1] The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Minister of State for Housing and Planning sent the letter to council leaders.[1] It asks councils to raise their ambition for delivering new council homes.[1] The government says its call for faster council housebuilding is backed by funding and support.[1] The first programme allocations form part of that support, alongside the additional funding for skills and capacity.[1] Councils are also being asked to provide information to the government.[1] According to the letter’s published description, that information will enable future support to be targeted.[1] The source does not specify what information each council must provide or when responses are required.[1] The Social and Affordable Homes Programme is the programme from which the government has announced the first allocations in this letter.[1] The source does not provide the value of those allocations, identify individual recipients or state how many homes they are expected to support.[1] The additional funding has a distinct purpose: boosting skills and capacity within councils.[1] The published material does not give an amount, distribution method or list of councils receiving that funding.[1] For people in the United Kingdom, the immediate development is a government request for every council leadership to increase its housebuilding ambition while engaging with the information-gathering process.[1] The confirmed next stage is the use of information supplied by councils to enable future targeted support.[1] What happens locally will depend on details not established by the source, including individual council allocations, planned numbers of new homes and delivery schedules.[1] Those details, together with the councils’ responses and any subsequent targeted support, are the principal developments still to be clarified.[1]

Why now?

The present trigger is the government’s announcement of the first Social and Affordable Homes Programme allocations and additional funding for council skills and capacity.[1] Ministers are using the letter to ask councils both to raise their housebuilding ambition and provide information for future targeted support.[1]