Rachel Reeves pledges £39bn to build thousands of affordable homes for Brits
Chancellor Rachel Reeves will announce plans to spend £39billion on a new affordable homes programme over the next decade as part of her long-awaited Spending Review
Hundreds of thousands of new affordable homes will be built over the next decade under a £39billion package announced today.
Rachel Reeves will unveil a massive cash injection for affordable homes to 'turn the tide on the housing crisis'. It comes as the Government pushes to meet its pledge to build 1.5 million homes by the next election.
Campaigners said the plan was 'transformational' and could help reverse decades of neglect. The Chancellor will make the commitment in the Spending Review as she promises to "invest in Britain's renewal".
The funding for a new Affordable Homes Programme far exceeds the amount previously committed by the Tories. The Treasury said this would see annual investment in affordable housing rise to £4 billion by 2029/30, almost double the average of £2.3 billion between 2021 and 2026.
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A Government source said: 'The Government is investing in Britain's renewal, so working people are better off.
"We're turning the tide against the unacceptable housing crisis in this country with the biggest boost to social and affordable housing investment in a generation, delivering on our Plan for Change commitment to get Britain building.'
Mairi MacRae, Director of Campaigns and Policy at Shelter, said: 'This increased investment is a watershed moment in tackling the housing emergency. It's a huge opportunity to reverse decades of neglect and start a bold new chapter for housing in this country."
Kate Henderson, Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation, said: 'This is a transformation package for social housing and will deliver the right conditions for a decade of renewal and growth.
'This is the most ambitious Affordable Homes Programme in decades and alongside long-term certainty on rents, will kickstart a generational boost in the delivery of new social homes.'
It comes on top of a ten-year social rent settlement that will set a rent policy for social housing from 2026 that enables providers to borrow and invest in new and existing homes, while also protecting social housing tenants. It will see rents rise at CPI inflation + 1% from 2026.
There are 1.3 million households stuck on social housing waiting lists in England, a rise of 10% in the last two years. Some 20,560 social homes were lost in 2023/24, primarily through Right to Buy sales and demolitions, while 19,910 were delivered - meaning a loss of 650 social homes.
Shelter has called for 90,000 social rent homes to be built per year over the next decade to clear the backlog.
It comes as the Chancellor will today lay out plans to splash tens of billions of pounds on public services such as the NHS, defence and schools over the next three years. But other areas are expected to feel the squeeze.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned that any increase in NHS funding above 2.5% raises the risk of real-terms cuts for other departments or further tax rises in the autumn.
Ms Reeves will allocated around £113billion for infrastructure investment, including big ticket items like the affordable homes plan, transport and energy projects. She freed up the funding last year by loosening borrowing rules.
She will also confirm changes to Treasury rules to make it easier to pour cash into projects outside of London and the South East. Value-for-money rules usually favour investment in prosperous areas as having the biggest impact on growth, making it harder to approve big projects in parts of the North and the Midlands.
The Chancellor is expected to say: 'This Government is renewing Britain. But I know too many people in too many parts of the country are yet to feel it. This Government's task – my task – and the purpose of this Spending Review – is to change that. To ensure that renewal is felt in people's everyday lives, their jobs, their communities."
A blitz of announcements made ahead of time include around £15.6 billion of spending on public transport outside of London and the South East, and £16.7 billion for nuclear power, most of which will pay for the new Sizewell C plant in Suffolk.
Ms Reeves also confirmed on Monday that some 9 million pensioners would be eligible for the winter fuel allowance this year after backtracking on the unpopular decision to strip the benefit from all but the poorest OAPs.
The Government also announced plans to expand free school meals eligibility to another 500,000 children whose families get Universal Credit, in a major win for the Mirror's campaign to end hunger in classrooms.
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