A leading North East affordable house builder is urging Britain’s new Labour government to secure funding for the social housing sector.
Newcastle-based Adderstone Living, which is committed to tackling the housing crisis, working with social housing providers to deliver affordable new homes, is looking to the new administration to provide assurances over future investment and sector funding.
This includes the £3 billion recently earmarked to boost UK housing development, which marked the expansion of a loan scheme designed to support the creation of thousands of new affordable homes.
As an affordable housing developer this has been extremely welcome, says new business director Debbie Hope, as the housing crisis and strong demand for family housing across the North East continues to impact.
She says funding not only improves the lives of those already living in homes but helps thousands of families benefit from new high-quality affordable housing.
“Whatever happens, it’s critical that Labour offers meaningful assurances about the future of funding for social housing with bold, positive action. A vibrant housing market is an essential ingredient in supporting the UK’s economic, social and environmental well-being. Tackling the housing supply is paramount – and a crucial part of increasing supply is to provide affordable housing.
“Affordable housing must remain top of the agenda, echoing the pre-election advice the Chartered Institute of Housing boss Gavin Smart offered: ‘start now and try to move as fast as you can’”. Labour is committed to economic growth and tackling the housing crisis, which is a welcome breath of fresh air for us in the development sector.
“Ambitious promises have been made and the administration is clearly keen to get started and stuck in. It’s finally time to deliver on all those promises on the back of renewed political stability and hopefully a clear, long-term strategy after the frustrations of 16 housing ministers in 14 years.”
Adderstone Living’s managing director Stephen McCoy will also be looking closely at the first 100 days of Keir Starmer’s new administration – a critical period as the new government beds in, setting out its stall.
He added: “We will be looking to the newly elected Labour mayors to unlock more opportunities to drive growth and regeneration, with stronger links than ever before to central government from the Northern heartlands. But above all, certainty is what everyone craves – planning is the more medium to long term issue, but it’s funding that is the critical issue that has to be addressed here and now.”
“Registered providers who allocate homes to people on housing lists who want to get on the property ladder, need to grant certainty to unlock more affordable homes and we urge the government to secure this. So, we remain cautiously optimistic that we will see some real change in terms of affordable housing on the agenda to tackle the UK’s housing crisis in the first few months.”
Working with local authorities and housing associations, Adderstone Living’s ‘land-led’ solutions involve the sourcing of suitable land, scheme design and securing of planning permissions before delivering quality homes.