Homes England have reported a drop in affordable housing starts year on year, with the number of starts dropping by 12% from April 1 to September 2025 when compared with 2024.
15,581 total starts were recorded, with just under 75% of these being affordable, coming to 11,474 affordable dwellings. Of these affordable starts, 1,238 were for social rent, a decrease of 38% from 2024. However, there was positive signs as the number of social homes completed actually increased year on year, with 2,339 homes making a 15% increase.
Almost all (94%) of starts were delivered by the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) 2021 to 2026, while 3% were brough through the Home Building Fund (HBF) and 1% via each of the Local Authority Accelerated Construction (LAAC) and the Single Land Programme (SLP).
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Julia Thomson, social housing partner at law firm Womble Bond Dickinson, warned the slump means that “housing delivery is falling well short of the government’s stated ambition” to deliver 1.5 million homes this parliament.
She said: “The pressure of increased build costs, the increased burden of repair costs on registered providers, the lack of certainty on grant commitment prior to the Spring Spending Review, and inflation have all impacted the sector’s ability to develop at scale.
“It is hoped that the certainty given by the 10-year rent settlement and Affordable Homes programme mitigates this and allows the sector to continue to provide development of much needed affordable housing.”
There has been dwindling faith in the government to deliver on their lofty promises of 1.5M new homes this parliament, as the economic blockers preventing a housebuilding boom seemingly fail to shift. The drop off in housebuilding is at it’s worst in London, prompting recent action to cut the affordable housing requirement for new developments in the capital. However, there have been concern from the affordable and social housing sectors that this desperation to hit target may be causing a loss of focus on exactly what tenure of homes are needed, as more working people are priced out of the private sector and temporary accommodation use spirals.
