The Affordable Homes Programme since 2015

Public Accounts Committee Closed Inquiry
Opened: 19 Aug 2022 Closed: 24 Feb 2023 Parliament page
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) is responsible for the Affordable Homes Programme, intended to supply new affordable homes for people to own or rent. The programme is managed by Homes England outside of London and the Greater London Authority within London. Building on previous inquiries into … Read more
17 Recommendations
6 Conclusions
1 Report
1 Oral session
1 Letter
1 Event
Activity timeline 5 events
24 Feb
2023
Report published
12 Dec
2022
Correspondence
7 Dec
2022
Report published
22 Sep
2022
Oral evidence
22 Sep
2022
Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · The Grimond Room, Portcullis House
Oral evidence sessions 1 session
22 Sep 2022
View on parliament.uk
The Affordable Homes Programme since 2015
Emran Mian · Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Jeremy Pocklington · Ministry of Defence Peter Denton · Homes England
Title HC No. Published Items Response
Twenty-Ninth Report - The Affordable Homes Programme since 2015 HC 684 7 Dec 2022 23 Responded
Recommendations & Conclusions
10 results
Clear
2 Recommendation Accepted
Twenty-Ninth Report - The Affordab…
Housing providers do not always build in areas of higher demand.
Housing providers do not always build in areas of higher demand. There is a mismatch between where housing providers build compared to areas of highest need. The Department tells local authorities how many homes, not just affordable homes, they should … Read more
Government Response
The government agrees to consider additional ways to work with LAs. The government will seek to improve this for successor programmes.
HM Treasury
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6 Recommendation Accepted
Twenty-Ninth Report - The Affordab…
The Department does not publish satisfactory data on the type, tenure, size, quality, or location...
The Department does not publish satisfactory data on the type, tenure, size, quality, or location of homes built under the Programme. The Department does not, for example, publish data on the number of homes built, where they are built, what … Read more
Government Response
The government will report annually to Parliament on the performance of the Programme and will confirm the information it will be able to share in its first report.
HM Treasury
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1 Conclusion Accepted
Twenty-Ninth Report - The Affordab…
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence...
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (the Department) and Homes England about the Affordable Homes Programme.1
Government Response
The government will work with Affordable Homes Programme delivery agencies to confirm their programme commitments in light of new economic challenges to delivery and will report to the Committee with updated targets for programme delivery.
HM Treasury
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10 Recommendation Accepted
Twenty-Ninth Report - The Affordab…
The Department told us it tried to ‘strike a balance,’ between a centrally driven approach...
The Department told us it tried to ‘strike a balance,’ between a centrally driven approach to need versus a local approach. The Department explained that outside London, Homes England identifies whether proposals for new homes are acceptable value for money, … Read more
Government Response
The government agrees to consider additional ways to work with LAs to take greater account in the Programme of local need for affordable homes. The Department is exploring how to give greater control over the 2021 programme to the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the West Midlands Combined Authority.
HM Treasury
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14 Recommendation Accepted
Twenty-Ninth Report - The Affordab…
The National Audit Office report found that the Programme could bring greater value to other...
The National Audit Office report found that the Programme could bring greater value to other parts of government, for example, in reducing the numbers of people in temporary accommodation. Local authority spend on homelessness has increased 50% in real-terms from … Read more
Government Response
The government will quantify wider savings to areas such as adult social care and temporary accommodation before the next iteration of the Programme, collecting evidence through resident surveys.
HM Treasury
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15 Recommendation Accepted
Twenty-Ninth Report - The Affordab…
The Department also commented that adult social care is another important example of the links...
The Department also commented that adult social care is another important example of the links and benefits that come from investing in housing, and that it is conducting research to quantify these savings.41 We asked the Department whether the 2021 … Read more
Government Response
The government will collect evidence through resident surveys as part of the 2021 programme evaluation to understand the impacts of increasing affordable housing supply on areas such as adult social care and temporary accommodation, with first surveys in 2024 and repeating until 2029.
HM Treasury
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16 Recommendation Accepted
Twenty-Ninth Report - The Affordab…
We pressed the Department as to why it does not consider these wider savings when...
We pressed the Department as to why it does not consider these wider savings when it allocates funding through the Programme. The Department told us it is working on improving its research base to do so but contended that the … Read more
Government Response
The government will quantify wider savings to areas such as adult social care and temporary accommodation before the next iteration of the Programme, collecting evidence through resident surveys.
HM Treasury
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17 Recommendation Accepted
Twenty-Ninth Report - The Affordab…
In contrast, the Department does consider welfare savings and quantified these in the 2021 programme...
In contrast, the Department does consider welfare savings and quantified these in the 2021 programme business case. The Department’s modelling showed that delivering new homes for social rent in London leads to significant savings in future housing benefit costs, compared … Read more
Government Response
The government agrees to quantify the wider savings it could make to areas such as adult social care and temporary accommodation, before the next iteration of the Programme. The evaluation for the 2021 programme will collect evidence through resident surveys to help understand many of these impacts, with the first surveys in 2024.
HM Treasury
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21 Recommendation Accepted
Twenty-Ninth Report - The Affordab…
The Department does not expect to deliver the intended benefits of the 2021 programme, and...
The Department does not expect to deliver the intended benefits of the 2021 programme, and there are significant risks that could mean housing providers build fewer homes than forecast.53 We asked the Department about whether it would be revising its … Read more
Government Response
The government will share with Parliament a revised delivery plan for the 2021 programme. The government has asked Homes England and the Greater London Authority to work with their providers during Spring 2023 to confirm their programme commitments in light of new economic challenges to delivery and will report to the Committee with updated targets following the outcome of this review.
HM Treasury
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23 Recommendation Accepted
Twenty-Ninth Report - The Affordab…
We commented that it would be good if the Department transparently published data on the...
We commented that it would be good if the Department transparently published data on the tenure, area, and size of new homes.58 The NAO report used internal data from the Department, Homes England, and the Greater London Authority with regards … Read more
Government Response
The government will provide an annual report to Parliament on programme delivery each year, once it has received final delivery figures for the financial year, and at the same point each year thereafter. The government will confirm the information it will be able to share in its first report.
HM Treasury
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Government Response AI assessment · 23 of 17 classified
Accepted 10
Accepted in Part 3
Acknowledged 2
Deferred 2
Not Addressed 4
Rejected 2
Total 17 recs + 6 conclusions
Correspondence 1 letter
12 Dec 2022 Correspondence from Peter Denton, Chief Executive Officer, Homes England, re Public Accounts Committee: Starter Homes inquiry – Affordable Housing statistics, dated 29 June 2022
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