Thousands of social and affordable homes to be built across England in £39bn plan

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Ministers have announced where 70,000 social and affordable homes will be built in England over the next 10 years, in a bid to address the housing crisis.

Funding has been granted to Greater Manchester, the West Midlands, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, North East England, and Liverpool, as well as £6bn for London.

It is the first part of a wider plan to build 300,000 social and affordable homes across the nation, under the government's £39bn social housebuilding programme.

Housing charities welcomed the news but said it was still not enough to meet demand, while the Conservatives said it was an "unfunded spending commitment".

Of the new homes announced on Monday, 60% would be for social rent - which means the cost of the unit is about half that of market rents and there are strict criteria for who can apply for it.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said: "No child should be raised in a hostel room and no family should wait 10 years for a front door of their own. I have said from my first day in this job that everything starts with a good home."

Under Labour, homeless figures have continued to rise to record levels.

Data released earlier this month suggested 177,530 children were homeless in temporary accommodation.

Natasha, who has been living in a hotel in Milton Keynes for the last four months with her son Zayd, is one of those waiting for a permanent home.

The 22-year-old spent the final months of her pregnancy and the first weeks of her son's life living in a hotel.

She says she has no idea how long she will be expected to stay there but was told it would only be temporary.

"I'm just scared when he gets older, when he starts crawling around, I can't even allow him to crawl in such a place like that because it's so dirty," she says.

While pregnant, Natasha says her room became infested with ants, which she repeatedly reported before eventually being moved into another room.

But her problems didn't end there.

While Natasha has her own bathroom, she shares a kitchen with around 60 other residents. She says the hotel is home to a mix of people, not just mothers and babies, and that she does not always feel safe using the shared space with Zayd.

Natasha describes living there as feeling "like a prison". She says visitors are not allowed, meaning friends and family can not come to help her with her five-week-old boy.

"I just want somewhere peaceful for him and calm. Somewhere nice where I can bring him up," she says.

She is one of the 1.34 million households on social housing waiting lists as of March 2025, the latest government figures.

London will see the largest share of funding, although no figure has been given for how many homes will be built in the capital.

Ministers said Monday's allocation was the first stage of the 10-year programme and more than £16bn remains to be allocated outside London.

Housing Secretary Angela Rayner suggested some of the new homes will be built by councils, saying she and the prime minister were "doing everything we can to get councils building once again".

Burnham had previously promised "the biggest council house building programme since the post-war period", and the government said millions extra would be given to councils to support their housebuilding plans and help with expertise.

But the announcement stops short of clarifying how the funding will be split between council homes and those provided by housing associations.

In the 1950s, councils were building almost 200,000 new council homes a year, but half of councils do not currently own or build their own homes.

In 2024-25, there were just over 12,000 homes built for social rent - the highest since 2013 -14, but organisations like the National Housing Federation and homeless charities have previously agreed that at least 90,000 social homes would need to be built each year to meet demand.

Social housing provides affordable homes at a low cost, managed by social landlords. It includes affordable rented properties as well as low-cost home ownership, such as shared ownership, and can be provided by local authorities and housing associations.

Charlie Berry, policy manager at housing charity Shelter, said the announcement was "not near the level we need to truly tackle that backlog and end homelessness".

But she said it was a "significant improvement", and added she would "love" Rayner to commit to a target of how many socially rented homes will be built annually.

As well as promise and funding to build more social homes, the Labour government pledged to build 1.5 million homes by 2029.

Despite statements like "build, baby, build", coined by former housing secretary Steve Reed, so far Labour is not on track to meet that target.

BBC Verify has been tracking the target using government statistics on the number of Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) issued by each local authority. Each newly created dwelling must have an EPC by law, making it the most timely indicator of new homes being built.

The latest EPC data suggests about 203,000 new homes were delivered in England in the 12 months ending June 2026. To reach the government's target of 1.5 million homes over five years, there would need to be at least 300,000.

Conservative shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly described the announcement as "sleight of hand", saying: "The small print shows homes won't have to be delivered until 2039."

He said: "Fewer homes will be delivered than previous programmes in this Parliament as social rent is more expensive. Labour have scaled back their affordable housing programme and expect us to thank them for it."

The Conservatives have said they would end the provision of social housing for foreign nationals in England if they win power at the next election which they estimated would "free up" 228,144 homes for "British families". On Monday, Reform announced similar plans to prioritise British-born workers under 35 when allocating social housing if it were to enter government.

Shelter said there were "already strict rules on who can access social housing" and neither plan addressed the underlying cause of the problems.

Reporting originally appeared via BBC News. Read the full source for additional context.