Affordable Homes Programme Latest Figures

THE SHARED OWNERSHIP and Affordable Homes Programme resulted in 36,478 new houses starting on-site and 32,990 houses completed between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.

Due to the pandemic’s impact on affordable houses built, government agreed an extension to the 2016-21 programme until March 2023. The aim was to help affordable housing providers to continue to build their pipeline and meet the programme’s target to build 130,000 new affordable homes over the programme’s 7-year period.

Affordable Homes Programme

From 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023, over three-quarters (78%) of starts (28,457) were for affordable homes. This marks an increase of 3% on the previous year, due to the maturing of the Affordable Homes Programme 2021-26 in its second year of delivery.

Of housing completions, 23,318 (71%) were for affordable homes, which is a 12% decrease on the previous year. This decrease can be attributed to the closure of the Affordable Homes Guarantees, Care and Support Specialised Housing, Empty Homes and Shared Ownership Affordable Homes Programme 2016-21.

A total of 4,793 affordable homes started in 2022-23 were for Affordable Rent. There were 3,921 starts under schemes including Shared Ownership and Rent to Buy. 17,525 starts were defined as ‘Affordable Tenure TBC’ homes, where the ultimate tenure category is not known until completion. The remaining 2,218 were for Social Rent, a 12% increase on the previous year.

Of the affordable homes completed, 10,250 were for Affordable Rent, a decrease of 27% on the previous year, and 9,336 under Intermediate Affordable Housing schemes. The remaining 3,732 were Social Rent completions, up 21% on the previous year.

Peter Denton, CEO of Homes England

Chief Executive of Homes England, Peter Denton, said: “The success of the Shared Ownership and Affordable Housing Programme 2016-21 is testament to the drive, ambition and resilience of our delivery partners to build their pipelines in the face of unprecedented barriers, and create over 130,000 new, quality affordable homes.”

Homes England has also announced that grant funding provided through the Affordable Homes Programme 2021-26 can now be used to fund replacement homes, alongside new affordable homes, as part of wider estate regeneration plans. It means funding can be used to replace housing that is outdated with newbuilds.

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