Housing Minister Grant Shapps has today launched a major new scheme to deliver affordable homes for those in need, providing a potential lifeline to some 4.5 million people on social housing waiting lists.

He outlined the next steps in the most radical shake-up of social housing for a generation, with a new Affordable Rent programme giving landlords greater flexibility to meet the individual needs of tenants in their area.

And today, he published the framework for this scheme and encouraged not only traditional housebuilders and housing associations to consider building homes through the new scheme, but also smaller developers looking to expand into housebuilding.

Under the new scheme landlords will be able to offer homes to tenants on fixed tenancies charging a rent of up to 80 per cent of local market rate - one of a number of efforts being made to move away from the 'one size fits all' system of social housing to one where a range of options are available to meet local housing needs. The extra revenue raised from rents would then be invested in building new homes.

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Alongside this greater private investment, the Government will also invest £4.5 billion to deliver up to 150,000 new affordable homes over the next four years.

The flexible tenancies will be for new tenants only - the lifetime tenancies and succession rights of existing council and housing association tenants will not be affected.

Mr Shapps today argued that with waiting lists having doubled over the past 13 years, social housing is ripe for reform, and landlords must have greater flexibility to find creative and innovative ways of meeting local housing need.

Mr Shapps said: "With some 4.5 million people on social housing waiting lists, it's clear that not only do we need more homes, but we also need a complete overhaul of the system, to one that offers much more flexibility than the current 'one size fits all' approach.

"The new Affordable Rent scheme launched today ticks both boxes. It offers landlords the freedom they need to offer a range of solutions to people's housing needs, while being able to raise extra rents to invest in house-building.

"This new scheme will provide new affordable homes which could help some of the millions of families currently on housing waiting lists, let down by a rigid, outdated system that is failing to meet their needs. But this scheme is also part of the most radical reforms to social housing for a generation, vital to ensuring that as many people as possible benefit from this valuable resource."

(CD/GK)