The Week in Housing: backing for Build Social and a reminder of the housing challenges the new government will face

Good afternoon.

In the run up to the election, Inside Housing’s Build Social campaign has been calling on political parties to commit to building substantial numbers of homes for social rent in their manifestos.

This week, both the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party backed that campaign, and talked about some of their own housing plans. Hopefully their example will help prompt a debate about numbers and need, and not just warm words about social housing during the rest of the campaign.

Our interview with Julie James, the Welsh government’s cabinet secretary for housing, local government and planning, also saw her recommit to the country’s 20,000 home social rent target, saying it will be “touch and go, but we’ll still make it”.

Ms James also backed Build Social, which called for the Welsh government to deliver on 4,000 homes a year (effectively its existing target), saying: “I absolutely support this campaign.”

Delivery obviously rests on a number of factors, and this week Community Housing Cymru called on the Welsh government to agree a multi-year rent settlement with the sector during a Local Government and Housing Committee meeting.

This week also brought a reminder that whichever party wins power in the general election will face pressure from a new wave of regional mayors, elected in May, who have pledged to deliver more social housing as part of their campaigns. Our interview with Kim McGuinness, the first mayor of the North East, saw her set out her ambitions for social landlords in the region.

Within a week of taking office, Ms McGuinness revealed that she and other regional mayors had met with housing secretary Michael Gove and “directly challenged him to say we need support to unlock the ability to build more social housing”. Whichever party wins power will face that same challenge from the regional mayors, keen to deliver on their own election pledges.

Our recent interview with new West Midlands mayor Richard Parker saw him set out his pledge to dramatically up the delivery of social rent, too.

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