We warmly welcome the chance to submit evidence to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee call for evidence on the long term delivery of social and affordable rented housing.
This inquiry invited views on the supply of social and affordable housing. Our response argued that significantly more public funding is needed for social housing. We also warned against relying on the planning system through developer contributions to fund all of it. And we advocated a focus on the location and quality of new homes, as well as their contribution to net zero.
While we were happy to see the Government publish its Social Housing Green Paper last year we would have liked to have seen a larger focus on supply. As such this inquiry and its explicit focus on supply is very welcome. Using public investment to build more social homes is crucial to addressing the housing crisis. However, it is also crucial to ensure homes are located near centres of employment, with good transport links and access to schools, hospitals, leisure opportunities and everything else people need. And we cannot rely on developer contributions to deliver these homes, particularly with increasing demands on developers to contribute to social infrastructure including education and health.
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