HCA funding will help deliver 80,000 new affordable homes

As many as 80,000 new affordable homes for sale and to rent will be delivered by 2015, after the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) allocated almost £1.8bn of funding to 150 housing associations, local authorities, new home developers and other affordable housing providers through its Affordable Homes Programme. Click on the link for a regional breakdown of the Affordable Homes Programme funding.

The funding means that that the government is now expected to surpass its target of delivering 150,000 affordable homes over the next four years, despite much scepticism from various property professionals.

It would be a major achievement if the government is successful in realising its target of building at least 150,000 new affordable homes by 2015, which is when the next general election is scheduled to take place. The majority of the planned affordable homes - 27% - are expected to be built in London.

Pat Ritchie, chief executive of the HCA, commented: "Our partners made extremely strong offers and I'd like to thank them and the HCA teams who worked so hard on this process.

"We expect to not only deliver exceptional value for money but also a programme that has a strong fit with local priorities as we move into the delivery phase of the Affordable Homes Programme.

"I am particularly pleased that we will be directly funding so many local authorities through our mainstream programme for the first time, to deliver affordable homes that will make a positive difference to local people."

Housing Minister Grant Shapps said: "The Affordable Homes Programme has received a ringing endorsement from the sector and confounded the critics, who said the programme would not deliver in the current climate. So I'm pleased to announce that 146 providers are in line to share almost £1.8bn cash to develop 80,000 new homes, many of which will be larger homes for families.

"There were some who predicted doom and said very few would want to be involved in this radical new approach. Others said it would work in the south east but nowhere else. But we now have a wealth of strong proposals, putting us on track to deliver up to 170,000 new affordable homes across the country over the next four years."