Chancellor announces £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programme

The Chancellor announced £39 billion for a new 10-year Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) 2026-2036 at the Spending Review on 11 June 2025¹. The Resolution Foundation describes the money as grant funding provided to local authorities and housing associations to build below-market-rent housing, allocated over the next 10 years².

On 7 November 2025 the government launched the full details of the programme, which said it could deliver around 300,000 affordable homes, of which 180,000 would be for social rent¹. The Resolution Foundation reports that 60 per cent of the £39 billion will be for social rent². Asked in Parliament about one-bedroom social rented homes for young people within the 180,000 target, the Housing Minister said on 7 January 2026 that this would be a matter for local authorities to address through their local planning policies¹.

The programme sits alongside wider housing policy. The government has committed to deliver 1.5 million new homes in England during this parliament¹. It published a revised National Planning Policy Framework in December 2024 with a new standard method for calculating housing need¹, and the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025¹. On 2 July 2025 the government published a policy paper, Delivering a decade of renewal for social and affordable housing, setting out a five-step plan covering grant funding, sector borrowing capacity, regulation, council housebuilding and partnership with the sector¹. The Housing Minister gave an update on that plan in a written statement on 28 January 2026¹.

The Resolution Foundation's Housing Outlook, published on 11 July 2025, sets out the backdrop against which the funding was announced²:

The same publication reports that annual social rent completions have fallen by 83 per cent since 1992-93 in England, and that 128,000 households are currently living in temporary accommodation in England, up by 78,000 (160 per cent) since 2010². It states that 166,000 children were in temporary accommodation in the last quarter of 2024, and that councils in England spent £2.3 billion on temporary accommodation in 2023-24².

Why it matters for households

The programme covers England and runs from 2026 to 2036, so any homes it funds would come after the current financial year¹. The split between social rent and other below-market tenures determines what tenants pay: the Resolution Foundation says social rents are typically set at roughly 50 per cent of market rents, while affordable or intermediate rents can be set as high as 80 per cent of market rents². Of the 300,000 homes indicated, 180,000 would be for social rent¹.

The funding is one part of a wider picture. The House of Commons Library reports that 39 per cent of 25- to 34-year-olds in the UK owned their home in 2022, compared with a peak of 59 per cent in 2000, and that from 1997 to 2025 the size of a 5 per cent deposit on a modest starter home has more than doubled relative to median earnings¹. It also reports that 32 per cent of renters in the private rented sector were aged 25 to 34, the most common age group¹. The Resolution Foundation reports that in 2023-24, 51 per cent of 19- to 29-year-olds in the UK lived with their parents, up from 41 per cent in 1994-95².

Separately, the Library notes that the minimum wage for eligible workers aged 21 and over will rise by 4.1 per cent to £12.71 per hour from 1 April 2026¹.

What happens next

The government has said it will publish a long-term housing strategy setting out its vision for the housing market, and has said it will publish it "shortly"¹. It consulted on a new National Planning Policy Framework in December 2025, alongside measures to support development, which would introduce a rules-based approach setting out where housing development is acceptable in principle¹. The Library notes that the government expects the SAHP to support an increase in supported housing, including for vulnerable young people¹.