Housing associations praise May's £2bn plan as 'total step change'

Housing associations have welcomed Theresa May’s announcement of an extra £2bn in longer-term funding for new developments, as homelessness charities said the measure should be the start of a wider shift in government towards seeing the benefits of social housing.

The prime minister told the National Housing Federation (NHF) conference in London that the money would fund schemes over the next decade.

May used a significant section of her speech to pointedly praise social housing, a sign of the gradual shift in the Conservative party away from the primacy of boosting home ownership, which is an increasingly unrealistic goal for many young people.

May called for an end to the “stigma” of social housing, also arguing that mixed estates should be better integrated, with no visible difference between social and affordable properties and those available at full market rents or for sale.

Social housing “should not be tucked away behind the private homes, out of sight and out of mind”, she told the conference.

A number of mixed developments have attracted controversy for segregating poorer residents from better-off householders, particularly through the use of so-called “poor doors” in blocks of flats – separate entrances to access social rent or affordable properties.

The main announcement of the speech was £2bn of what is described as new funding for social and affordable housing. This can be applied for until 2028-29, intended to help long-term construction decisions.

David Orr, the chief executive of the NHF, which represents housing associations, said the long-term element was “a total step change” and would hugely help planning. “Ultimately, this will have a huge impact on building the affordable homes that thousands of people across the country desperately need,” he said.

Paul Hackett, the chair of G15, which groups together many of London’s major housing associations, said the sector had long called on the government to begin long-term funding deals, and the new plan would bring many advantages.

The chief executive of the homelessness charity Shelter, Polly Neate, said that while the news was welcome, there were still more than a million households on social housing waiting lists.

She said: “This must be the start and not the end. What we need now is more social homes actually being built as well as a big shift in attitude to start viewing social housing as a right for hard-pressed families across the country.”

In her speech, May said that in return for the new approach, housing associations should use their expertise, local connections and long-term planning “to achieve things neither private developers nor local authorities are capable of doing”.

“Rather than simply acquiring a proportion of the properties commercial developers build, I want to see housing associations taking on and leading major developments themselves,” she said.

May highlighted the Grenfell Tower tragedy as an example of how social tenants had been marginalised, saying many residents had “felt ignored, patronised and overlooked” by the organisation that managed the west London block.

She said politicians and others should no longer “look down on social housing”, and she called for a new approach to the sector.

“Whether unintentionally or by design, the decisions we make about the homes we build for social rent – their location, quality and appearance – can all too easily make them distinct from the community in which they stand.”

May added: “As you look from building to building, house to house, you should not be able to tell simply by looking which homes are affordable and which were sold at the market rate.”