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£2 billion new investment to build 18000 social and affordable homes: "we're still a world away from the Government's 1.5m goal"

ended 25. March 2025

The Chancellor and Deputy Prime Minister today announced up to 18,000 new social and affordable homes will be built with a £2 billion injection of investment to deliver the Prime Minister’s Plan for Change.

Thousands of new affordable homes will start construction by March 2027 and will complete by the end of this Parliament. The government is encouraging providers to come forwards as soon as possible with projects and bids to ramp up the delivery of new housing supply, in turn making the dream of home ownership a reality for more people across the country.

The government says today's announcement will also unlock development and opportunity on sites that are ready and waiting for spades in the ground in places such as Manchester or Liverpool.

Newspage asked property experts for their views, below.

6 responses from the Newspage community

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Stephen Perkins
Managing Director at Yellow Brick Mortgages
A drop in the ocean won’t change the tides. 18.000 affordable homes is not big enough to have any significant impact on affordability or the housing market. Like with all government targets I am not convinced they will get built as more lucrative housing will always be the developer’s highest priority.
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Emma Jones
Managing Director at Whenthebanksaysno.co.uk
While 18,000 new social and affordable homes is a positive, we're still a world away from the Government's 1.5m goal. The key is for spades to hit the ground at scale and with increasing momentum. Affordability, as shown in data published this week, is a constant challenge for aspiring buyers. The average house costs far too much for the average salary and there is no sign of that changing soon.
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Andrew Montlake
CEO at Coreco
Building more social and affordable housing is absolutely essential for this country so any news is good news on that front, although it does highlight the extent of the challenge ahead given the 1.5m target. It's crucial that spades in ground translate into keys in hand as fast as possible as the lack of housing stock is one of this country's biggest challenges.
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Riz Malik
Independent Financial Adviser at R3 Wealth
The government are trying to deliver some good news before the Spring statement and OBR forecast which is likely to be disastrous. Eighteen thousand homes is a drop in the ocean to support the UK population who have been promised millions.
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Gabriel McKeown
Political & Economics Writer at Sad Rabbit - Substack Newsletter
Modern politics relies on the power of big numbers, if a number sounds big, then a policy will be looked on more favourably, even if it is totally lacklustre. This appears to be the revised stratagem from the government, with a plan to build thousands of new homes, at a time when millions are needed. I am all for positive reinforcement, and admittedly, this is a step in the right direction, although congratulating the party for this plan would be like cheering a runner five steps into a marathon, a bit pointless really in the grand scheme of things.
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Iain Swatton
Director at Exemplar Financial Services
The Government’s £2 billion investment to build 18,000 social and affordable homes is undoubtedly welcome news, but it highlights just how far we still have to go. With a target of 1.5 million homes, this represents less than 1.5% of the goal—giving a real sense of the scale of the challenge ahead. To tackle the UK’s deep-rooted housing shortage, we need to see more of these announcements and on a far greater scale. The focus must remain on delivering genuinely affordable homes, with ongoing investment and planning reform to meet the growing demand. This is a positive step, but the road ahead is still a long one.