Mayors handed greater control over £39bn affordable housing fund

The ten-year programme is worth £39 billion in investment, which will be delivered through Homes England (outside London) and the Greater London Authority (in London).

An announcement today confirms how the new approach will be delivered in practice, with delivery partner prospectuses being published detailing how social housing providers can access funding, the expectations placed on them, and the flexibilities built into the programme to support the pipeline of new homes.    

Changes include a new route to bid into the Social and Affordable Homes Programme as well as allowing councils to combine Right to Buy receipts from sales with grant funding from next year. 

Bidding guidance has now been published by Homes England ahead of bidding opening in February 2026. The first grants are expected to be due in April 2026.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: "For the first time Mayors, working jointly with Homes England, will shape the course of action for new affordable housing money in their regions, setting out ambitious plans for the types of homes that get built, sites prioritised for construction and how many suitable bids for grant funding could come forward in each area." 

Under the plans, housing providers will be required to demonstrate how their bids align with local priorities, ranging from specialist housing for older people to community-led projects, the Government added.

Whitehall aims for the new approach to deliver around 300,000 affordable homes, with at least 60% as Social Rent homes.

It predicts the following spend for established mayoral strategic authorities, subject to suitable bids:

• Greater Manchester: £1.8 billion 
• West Midlands: £1.7 billion 
• North East: £1.1 billion 
• West Yorkshire: £1 billion 
• Liverpool City Region: £700 million 
• South Yorkshire: £700 million.

In addition, the Government has said it is directly awarding £150m to mayoral strategic authorities to build homes on brownfield sites.

Commenting on the programme, Homes England Chair Pat Ritchie said: "We have designed the new programme to support local leaders to meet the affordable and social housing needs of the people they serve, and to give long-term confidence to the housing sector to invest and achieve such vital ambitions through collaboration and partnership.

"The commitment of £2 billion in bridge funding will help ensure the existing momentum to create new affordable and social homes continues, and builds further as the current programme ends and the new one begins."

Housing Secretary Steve Reed said: "Families have been trapped in so-called temporary accommodation for years or stuck on council waiting lists with no hope of a secure home.  

"We're changing that for good with the biggest boost to social housebuilding in a generation and getting behind mayors who are ready to build affordable housing across their regions. 

"We're also backing councils to build again and transform derelict sites into thriving neighbourhoods, urging them to go big, go bold and go build."

Adam Carey