BASW welcomes investment for social and affordable homes
The UK Government has announced new grant funding of £2billion as part of their long-term plans to build 1.5million new homes to help tackle the housing crisis.
Construction on the 18,000 new social homes is due to begin in early 2027 with the aim of completing by June 2029. The full funding for meeting the overall 1.5million homes target is expected to be announced before the end of the Spending Review in June this year.
Housing is a devolved issue, meaning that in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland it is the responsibility of the devolved parliaments rather than Westminster. However, this spending announcement will lead to additional funding from Westminster to the devolved parliaments to invest in housing initiatives.
As part of BASW’s evidence to the Treasury for the Spending Review, we called for the government to deliver an intense programme of building more social and specialist housing to address the glaring housing shortages across the country. We made the point that more social housing is needed to ease costs and improve availability, while more specialist housing to suit those with additional needs, such as people with learning disabilities and older people, must also be made available. Substantial and on-going investment in good quality social and specialist and supported housing was also one of our social work manifesto asks ahead of last year’s General Election.
Social workers will often be dealing with issues where housing, or more specifically lack of appropriate housing, is a major underlying issue for the people they support. High housing costs can significantly increase the risk of families and individuals falling into and becoming trapped in poverty, while lack of safe and secure housing can contribute to and exasperate wider health and social problems.
Suitable, affordable housing is therefore crucial to effective support and ensuring everyone can be a participating member of society. Housing development also brings wider socio-economic benefits through job creation and stimulating investment in local economies, which in turn helps to forge better connected communities with improved living standards and opportunities.
It is welcome to see the government making progress toward delivering on increasing the amount of good-quality social and specialist housing. BASW will continue to engage with policymakers on this issue where necessary to ensure that the government now meets its housing targets.
You can read the full policy announcement here.
