The funding allocations come from the ten-year, £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programme.
£9.58 billion will go to housing associations, councils, and other providers outside of London. For the first time, three councils – Cambridge City Council, Eastleigh Borough Council, and Newcastle City Council – have secured strategic partner status with Homes England.
A separate allocation of at least £6 billion is planned for London, where councils are expected to deliver more than half of the homes that are supported by the programme.
Delivery must extend beyond planning reform
The new funding and stronger role for councils reflect recommendations made in Propertymark’s position paper, Meeting UK house demand, moving beyond the planning system.
We have highlighted that local authorities delivered almost half of new homes between 1953 and 1973, when UK housebuilding averaged more than 340,000 homes each year. By comparison, councils delivered only 1.3% of homes built over the decade covered by our research.
The move towards longer-term funding and greater local influence is welcome. The programme’s success will ultimately be judged by whether these allocations, powers and partnerships translate into completed homes in the places and tenures where they are most needed.
More funding will be directed locally
Around £2.45 billion of the funding allocated outside London will be targeted at six established mayoral areas, delivering:
- 4,400 homes in Greater Manchester
- 3,400 homes in the North East
- 4,000 homes in West Yorkshire
- 3,200 homes in the West Midlands
- 3,100 homes in the Liverpool City Region
- 2,200 homes in South Yorkshire
Councils will also receive an additional £46 million over three years through the Capacity to Build programme. This will support skills, early-stage development work, and recruitment into specialist roles such as surveying, planning, and construction project management.
Greater Manchester sets out its ambition
Mayor Bev Craig has announced an ambition to deliver 50,000 new council, social and genuinely affordable homes across the city region by 2039.
The plan aims to have 10,000 homes built, under construction, or in the planning pipeline by May 2028. It also includes a review of publicly owned land and proposals for a Public Sector Land Bank to bring disused and dormant sites forward for housing.
The Institute for Government has stated that whilst regional mayors can help coordinate housing with transport, infrastructure, employment, and environmental plans, rebuilding the skills and organisational capacity needed to deliver council housing at scale will be the major test. In 2024–25, councils delivered fewer than 2% of all new homes in England, while almost half of councils owned no social housing. Mayors will therefore depend on effective partnerships with local authorities, developers, housing associations, investors, and Homes England.
Mayors could take over major planning decisions
Separate proposals announced by the Prime Minister would give regional mayors ‘call in’ powers over major planning applications and the ability to introduce development levies to fund major infrastructure, bringing them closer to the planning role already held by the Mayor of London. The powers would apply to developments involving more than 150 homes, more than 15,000 square metres of commercial space, or buildings at least 30 metres tall.
A mayor could take over an application and direct a council to approve or refuse it. Mayors could also grant upfront permission for some developments, allowing construction to begin without a separate application from the developer.
Mayoral decisions would still have to follow planning law, the relevant Local Plan, and national policy, while applicants would retain their right of appeal.
