North of England landlords call for new ‘long-term’ Affordable Homes Programme

The NHC said that government should launch a 10-year £4.2bn fund delivered through mayoral combined authorities to build up to 320,000 homes on the North’s brownfield land.

The government should also unlock more sites and more delivery across the North by ensuring wider social and economic benefits are properly taken into account in all government funding streams, it said.

The NHC set out its asks for the next government in its Building the Future of Housing in the North report. This outlines its priorities for a partnership between government and NHC members by 2035.

The group also called for a ‘retrofit revolution’ and for the government to ensure everyone across the North has a good-quality, safe place to call home.

Tracy Harrison, chief executive of the NHC, said: “Housing associations, local authorities and ALMOs own 1.3 million homes across the North.

“Social housing providers already make a huge contribution to local economies across the North, delivering around 60,000 new homes over the last five years, supporting over 70,000 jobs, and creating great places for people to live.

“However, we need to go much further and faster to tackle some of the challenges we face in the diverse housing markets we have across the North.

“That’s why we need a new partnership with government, with a commitment to long-term investment. This will create the certainty needed to deliver new homes, refurbish existing ones, unlock brownfield land for up to 320,000 homes, as well as creating 77,000 green jobs through decarbonising the North’s older, colder homes.

“There is much to do but we and our members stand ready to work in partnership with the next government to create great homes, great places, and a new generation of green jobs.”

‘Retrofit revolution’

The NHC said that the next government should create up to 77,000 green jobs across a phased 10-year investment in decarbonisation in the North.

It said that the government would need to invest £500m a year to meet Energy Performance Certificate Band C targets by 2030, and £1bn a year up to 2035 to make meaningful progress towards net zero.

The group said that the next government should devolve funding for retrofit for all housing tenures to mayoral combined authorities, as part of expanded devolution agreements, to enable a “place-based approach to domestic retrofit”.

Decent Homes Standard

The NHC said that the government should ensure everyone in the North has a good-quality, safe place to call home.

It said this should be achieved by the government launching a new Decent Homes Standard for both the social and private rented sectors to ensure good-quality homes.

The government first committed more than three years ago to review the Decent Homes Standard for the social housing sector and extend it to the private sector. The standard has not been updated since 2006. 

A government consultation was run on a new standard in autumn 2022. A review was relaunched in June 2023, but changes have yet to be made.

The NHC said that a new standard should be backed up by a new financial settlement for social housing providers including a guarantee that social sector rents can increase by up to Consumer Price Index plus one per cent over the next 10 years, so the sector can deliver the changes needed.

In April, the government extended the existing CPI plus one per cent social housing rent settlement for an extra year for 2025-26, however uncertainty remains over what will happen after this.

The NHC said the government should also support local authorities to tackle poor-quality homes in the private rented sector, by removing barriers to local authority licensing schemes and providing an initial two-year funding pot for enforcement.

The NHC also called for a sustainable financial settlement for local authorities to underpin the “vital work” the sector does in local communities, as well as specific investment to rebuild planning capacity.