The Federation, which represents housing associations in England, warned that just 20,390 social homes could be built this year; the lowest annual total of affordable homes built since 1990/91.
The Federation has written to Housing Minister Grant Shapps to urge the Government to honour its spending commitments on new housing schemes and halt changes to the planning system, which it claimed could make getting new homes built “almost impossible”.
Shapps recently said that around 150 housing projects are under threat due to a £610m funding gap.
In addition, the Government has announced that £100m will be cut from the National Affordable Housing Programme, which was meant to deliver 59,000 new social homes this year. The withdrawal of this funding will see plans for 1453 social homes axed.
The Federation added that the Government’s decision to re-designate gardens from brownfield to greenfield sites and end regional house building targets will further impact the sector.
David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, said: “Unless the Government takes steps to modify some of the policies recently announced, we fear that the overall number of affordable homes built in subsequent years could fall to an even lower number.
“Given the scale of housing need across the country, we cannot afford for the building of affordable homes to effectively grind to a halt.”
