Burnham’s flagship council housebuilding pledge faces £7bn blackhole to meet demand

The New Economics Foundation warns that the government’s pledge for the biggest council housebuilding drive since the post-war period may fall short without another £7bn for its housing programme. The warning adds pressure ahead of the next spending review, after the Budget announced an extra £1.5bn.

The programme is worth more than £40bn over 10 years and is projected to deliver an average of 18,000 social homes a year. Housing charities and the NEF say England needs 90,000 annually; councils built an average of 103,000 a year at the post-war peak, but only 2,000 annually in the five years to 2025. The report says an additional £7bn, spent earlier in the programme, could help fund more than 100,000 council and social homes by 2030 and put England on track for 90,000 a year by 2032-33.