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ONS Housing Stats in England Dec 22

ended 01. December 2022

A report into affordable housing was published by the ONS this morning, the key points below. Any thoughts, send them across ASAP. This story is BREAKING.

  • 10,986 or 74 per cent of housing starts on site in the six-month period to 30 September 2022 were for affordable homes. This represents a decrease of 7 per cent on the 11,810 affordable homes started in the same period last year, when they accounted for 73 per cent of all housing starts. The decrease can be attributed to the closure of bidding for the SOAHP 2016-21 in March 2021 and the gradual build-up of starts from the recently launched AHP 2021-26.
  • Of the affordable homes started in the first six months of 2022-23, 2,095 were for Affordable Rent, an increase of 25 per cent on the 1,680 started in the first six months of 2021-22. A further 1,751 were for Intermediate Affordable Housing schemes, including Shared Ownership and Rent to Buy. This is an increase of 19 per cent on the 1,471 started in the same period last year. 799 were for Social Rent, a decrease of 8 per cent on the 869 started in the first half of the previous year. 
  • 7,848 or 65 per cent of housing completions in the six-month period to 30 September 2022 were for affordable homes. This represents a decrease of 22 per cent on the 10,096 affordable homes completed in the same period of the previous year, when they accounted for 70 per cent of total completions. As with affordable starts (see 1.3 above), this decrease can be attributed to the closure of bidding for the SOAHP 2016-21 and gradual build up of the new AHP 2021-26.
  • Of the affordable homes completed between 1 April and 30 September 2022, 3,670 were for Affordable Rent, a decrease of 31 per cent on the 5,346 completed in the first six months of the previous year. A further 3,055 were for Intermediate Affordable Housing schemes, including Shared Ownership and Rent to Buy, a decrease of 15 per cent on the 3,576 completed in the same period last year. The remaining 1,123 were for Social Rent, a 4 per cent decrease on the 1,174 completed in the first half of last year. 

4 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Samuel Mather-Holgate
Independent Financial Adviser at Mather and Murray Financial
The lack of housing stock in the UK, especially that of affordable housing, is a national disgrace. It's the one main policy area that has dogged the government for over a decade and they simply haven't grasped the nettle. If we want to look at these statistics to generate better policy, they first need to be revised. The term affordable housing means different things to different people but it is clear that there are some developments being recorded as affordable, but you'd need to be on a top salary and have a healthy deposit to afford them. It is really disappointing, but unsurprising, to see that there hasn't been any major increase in affordable housing development starts or finishes. This is the only way that the UK will grow its economy in any material way and it is all necessary to deal with the raft of social policy improvements needed by this government.
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Editor
Riz Malik
Independent Financial Adviser at R3 Wealth
A sledgehammer needs to be taken to the UK's affordable housing strategy. According to the report, housing programmes delivered by Homes England resulted in 12,118 houses completed between 1 April and 30 September 2022. The UK's population is in excess of over 68 million. Proportionally the number is so small my calculator goes into meldown. In addition, reference was made to the challenging macro-economic environment, which has impacted delivery. In a parallel universe without Brexit, I doubt we would be in the same position.
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Zaid Patel
Director at Highcastle Estates
Rents will not be affordable until the government provides fairer laws between landlords and tenants, find a quicker solution for the courts to evict rather than the current 9-12 months for unpaid rent, add missed rents on credit reports and create a rogue tenant database. These are the reasons landlords are exiting the market, the reason landlords are not entering the market, creating a shortage in rental properties, at a time when demand is only increasing, thus pushing the rents higher, as it has done over the past six months.
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Graham Cox
Director at Bridging Hub
Affordable housing builds and completions are down on the corresponding six-month period a year ago, but that appears to be due to a one-off factor: the transition to the new Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) 2021-26. But it's self-evident that if you need 'affordable' housing programs, like shared ownership, rent to buy and so on, then by definition most housing is unaffordable. It's almost like we've just accepted ludicrously expensive housing costs as the norm. These programs just address the symptom rather than the cause, that house prices and rents are far too high.