More than £1.6 billion is being invested by the Government to boost social housing across England.

Secretary of State for Communities James Brokenshire has confirmed a £1.67bn social housing deal has been agreed to help deliver around 23,000 new 'affordable' homes.

The initiative is part of the government's £9bn investment in affordable homes, of which £1.67bn was announced in March 2018 for London. This latest funding will deliver homes across the rest of the country.

Communities Secretary James Brokenshire said: "The government has ambitious plans to fix the broken housing market and build the homes our communities need.

"Today's announcement is a further milestone. It will secure the delivery of an additional 23,000 much-needed affordable homes as well as paving the way for a new generation of council houses.


"The majority of these new homes will be in high cost areas helping to ease the burden of rent on hard working families and delivering stronger communities."

Martin Bellinger, executive chairman of London-based group Guildmore, said the announcement is "testimony to the changing public and political sentiment around council housing".

"After years of poor management and woefully low build rates, the government is finally waking up to the importance of high quality council housing for social cohesion and economic prosperity," he said.

"While this funding will help address the housing need in areas facing the chronic shortages, more needs to be done to address the undersupply of affordable housing throughout the entire country. Public bodies can't be expected to deliver all of these homes on their own and, using the extra £1 billion funding cap, must move towards forming collaborative and effective partnerships with experienced private enterprise to deliver high quality, affordable homes, quickly and effectively."

In addition, the Communities Secretary is inviting councils to bid for a share of £1bn extra borrowing to build new homes, to be split equally between London and the rest of England.

A bidding process will now begin for both programmes, with successful bids for the affordable homes funding notified throughout the year.

(LM/MH)