Healey to announce over £1bn more for social housing in Wednesday's Budget

Mixed · 2Chancellor John Healey is expected to announce more than £1bn extra for social and affordable housing in England in Wednesday's Budget, taking funding for the government's 10-year homes programme past £40bn. 1 2 Mixed · 2Councils would be helped to borrow from the government for housebuilding through preferential interest rates. 1 3 Mixed · 2Mayors and regional leaders are to get an initial £285m in funding next year, to reduce reliance on what the Treasury called "fragmented bidding pots", and a £1.5bn borrowing facility from 2028 designed with mayors. 1 2

Right · 2GB News and City A.M. also report a further £150m to build strategic authorities' capacity to run larger investment programmes. 2 3 Mixed · 2Healey said English cities and regions would get the "right to decide their own future", and Prime Minister Andy Burnham said: "I'm calling time on local leaders going cap in hand to Westminster." 1 2 Right · 1GB News says the housing money could deliver up to 10,000 new homes, and cites figures including 1.3 million households on social housing waiting lists, 177,500 children in temporary accommodation and only 12,250 social rent homes completed in 2024/25. 2

Right · 1Shelter's acting chief executive Mairi MacRae called the funding "another important step in the right direction" but urged the government to go further and remove unsustainable housing debt from council balance sheets. 2 Mixed · 2Claire Ward, chair of the UK Mayors Network, and London mayor Sadiq Khan welcomed the greater powers, with Khan citing possible projects such as the West London Orbital, Bakerloo line and DLR extensions. 1 2 Right · 1City A.M. reports NHBC figures showing new-home registrations fell 13% year on year in the third quarter of 2026, to 26,231 from 30,279, with affordable and rental registrations down 23% to 7,872 and private registrations down 8%. 3

Right · 1NHBC's Daniel Pearce said the industry had reached a "critical point", and City A.M. says the figures add to doubts over Labour's 1.5 million homes target; Angela Rayner told Sky News it "was always a stretch target", citing construction costs linked to the Middle East conflict. 3 Right · 1City A.M. adds that the Budget is expected to set out the Your First Home scheme, letting eligible first-time buyers buy new-builds with a 2.5% deposit and a 20% government equity loan. 3 Mixed · 2Healey's preparations were hit when the Treasury's entrepreneurship adviser Alex Depledge announced she would resign, leaving the day after the Budget, saying start-ups were treated as a "sideshow". 1 2

Mixed · 2Defence is a parallel pressure point: Healey resigned as defence secretary in June, saying the investment plan fell "well short", and shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith has said he should resign if he fails to set out how the UK will spend 3% of GDP on defence by 2030; Defence Secretary Wes Streeting blamed the Conservatives for failing to invest in the military. 1 2