Social housing in the Comprehensive Spending Review

We’re preparing a submission that sets out housing associations’ key role in rebuilding the economy, supporting jobs and skills, levelling up, and decarbonisation

The Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) due in autumn will set out the government’s spending plans for the rest of this Parliament. 

Its focus this year will be helping the UK recover from the coronavirus crisis by prioritising measures that support the economy, create jobs and boost skills. It is also likely to focus on the government’s levelling-up and decarbonisation agendas.

We may not see significant new funding for new affordable homes in the CSR because an announcement on the new Affordable Homes Programme is expected in the coming weeks. However, the CSR is an important opportunity to build the long-term case for social housing and call for funding in other key areas of housing associations’ work.

Our submission

Our submission will set out housing associations’ key role in driving forward the government’s priorities of supporting the economy, jobs and skills, levelling up and decarbonisation. We’ll focus our asks on the policy priorities for the national recovery that we developed with members over the summer:

• No return to rough sleeping.
• A new generation of affordable homes.
• Helping people to thrive at home.
• A new drive to decarbonise social housing.
• Change for communities across the country.

Read more about these priorities in our recovery briefing.

Influencing the CSR

In the run-up to the CSR, we’ll be discussing our priorities with ministers and officials and will continue to build a public case for social housing’s role in the national recovery with our #HomesAtTheHeart campaign. 

Through this activity, we’ll highlight our key asks, make the case for investment in social homes, present the sector’s views on key issues like planning and building safety, and highlight the critical roles that housing associations play.