Wednesday, August 26, 2026
Can Burnham deliver on housing?
The paper says that the initial wave of funding will build 70,000 homes across England, at least 60 per cent of which will be social rented houses, though the funding has not just been found as it is reported that it comes from the previously announced £39bn Social and Affordable Housing Programme (SAHP) fund, agreed last year by former prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and former chancellor Rachel Reeves.
However, they add that on the ground, the 300,000 new homes a year needed to achieve the government's targets remains far off. The most recent data shows that around 203,000 new homes were delivered in England in the 12 months ending June 2026 – a rate that would see the final housing total fall short by half a million:
Trickier still is delivering affordable homes within this target. Under the SAHP, the government intends to deliver 300,000 homes for social or affordable rent by 2039.
In reality, pressure from developers – who make less money from these kinds of homes – has already started forcing local authorities to backpedal on their affordable home targets.
Most notably, the mayor of London Sadiq Khan reduced the quota for affordable housing in new developments in the capital from 35 to 20 per cent in November last year. He called this an “emergency measure”, designed to “kickstart house building in London”.
The Independent adds that there are other problems with the target, including a a severe shortage of skilled construction workers following Brexit:
More than 200,000 EU workers have left the UK construction sector since 2019 due to post-Brexit immigration rule changes and the pandemic.
The scaffolding sector alone faces an estimated shortage of 40,000 workers over the next five years, alongside significant vacancies for carpenters and bricklayers.
An ageing workforce is worsening the crisis, with around one million additional workers needed over the next decade to replace retirees and meet demand.
This target is not going to be an easy one to reach, it it is achieveable at all.
