Sector welcomes Government commitments
The housing industry has given a warm response to the Chancellor’s announcement of £39bn for affordable and social housing over the next decade.
Rachel Reeves’ Spending Review announced the “biggest cash injection into social and affordable housing in 50 years”, as she also committed an additional £10bn for financial investments, including through Homes England, to “unlock thousands of homes.”
The Government will also provide £1.2bn by the end of the Spending Review period for training and apprenticeships.
Neil Jefferson, CEO of the Home Builders Federation, said: “utting housing associations on a firmer footing should, over time, deliver more new homes and help address the long-term crisis in the market for subsidised homes delivered through planning agreements.”
Meanwhile, Stephen Teagle, CEO of Partnerships and Regeneration at Vistry Group, added: “We welcome the chancellor’s confirmation in the Spending Review of an unprecedented £39 billion in funding for the next Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) as well as a ten-year social rent settlement for registered providers and local authorities, which will have a transformative impact on our ability to deliver affordable and mixed tenure homes up and down the country.”
This is the most ambitious Affordable Homes Programme in decades and alongside long-term certainty on rents, will kickstart a generational boost in the delivery of new social homes.
Kate Henderson, Chief Executive, National Housing Federation
The news comes in the same week as the Government announced a new artificial intelligence tool to speed up the planning process.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the launch of Extract, an AI assistant for planning officers and local councils which will, according to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, allow councils to convert old, handwritten planning documents and maps into data within minutes.
According to test trials across Hillingdon, Nuneaton & Bedworth and Exeter councils, the Extract tool digitised planning records in only three minutes each. This compares to the typical manual process of one to two hours.
Meanwhile, a report by the Radix Big Tent Housing Commission identified nine major challenges to delivering the Government’s ambition of 1.5 million new homes by the end of the Parliament.
These include the lack of developer diversity, lack of construction workers, and the slow processing of funding for social housing providers.
The paper, Unblocking the Housing Ecosystem, also provides six key recommendations, including the boosting build-out of mixed-use developments and ensuring that large-scale sites are masterplanned.
Construction output rises in April
Figures from the Office for National Statistics has found that construction output rose by 0.9% in April, driven by infrastructure and private commercial work.
This marks the third month of growth in a row, with output in the three months to April rising by 0.5%.
Crest Nicholson returns to profit
Housebuilder Crest Nicholson has returned to profit after large losses last year.
Boosted by a transformation strategy led by new CEO Martyn Clark, the developer published results for the six months to 30 April 2025 showing pre-tax profits of £9.4m, from a -£30.9m loss las time.
The firm set aside £132m last year for fire safety work, but is clawing some of this back from supply chain firms, with £11.8m recovered during the period.
Meanwhile, Bellway has seen “robust trading” throughout the spring selling season, and expects between 8,600 and 8,700 completions for its year end.
In a trading update covering 01 February to 01 June, the housebuilder noted “good levels of customer demand”, with private reservations per outlet per week, excluding bulk sales, reaching 0.61.
The news comes as the Competition and Markets Authority announced it is extending its investigation into suspended breaches of competition law by seven major developers.
The review commenced in February 2024, after a study suggested that some housebuilders may be sharing commercially sensitive information with their competitors.
The investigation has now been extended to August.
Housing View 