May pledges £2bn long-term funding for affordable homes
Prime Minister Theresa May has promised housing associations £2bn worth of long-term funding for affordable housing.
May announced the funding for the construction of new social and affordable housing in a speech at the National Housing Federation summit in London on 19th September. Under the scheme, housing associations will be able to apply for funding stretching as far ahead as 2028/29.
May told representatives from housing associations in the audience:
“Doing so will give you the stability you need to get tens of thousands of affordable and social homes built where they are needed most and make it easier for you to leverage the private finance you need to build many more.”
But in return, May said, she wanted to see housing associations take on and lead major developments themselves rather than acquiring a proportion of the properties commercial developers build.
She added:
“Your unique status as public interested, non-profit private institutions allows you to attract patient investment and deploy it to secure long-term returns on quality rather than short-term speculative gains. Your expertise as property managers means you can nurture attractive, thriving places for decades to come. You are capable of riding out the ups and downs of the business cycle, as we saw in the years after the economic crash when housing associations carried on building even as private developers hunkered down.”
Source: Construction Manager Magazine
