{"text":[[{"start":6.75,"text":"Housing associations are cutting building plans by a quarter over the next three years because the government has delayed key funding, in a blow to Andy Burnham’s promises of a big boost to council homes. "}],[{"start":19.5,"text":"Some of England’s biggest developers of social and affordable housing say they will build thousands fewer homes than planned after officials imposed limits on the spending of government grants before 2029. "}],[{"start":32.1,"text":"Labour has repeatedly promised “the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation” through a £39bn 10-year funding scheme announced last year. An increase in subsidised housing is a key component of Sir Keir Starmer’s promise of 1.5mn homes over this parliament, a target widely seen as likely to be missed. "}],[{"start":53.1,"text":"Burnham, who is poised to take over from Starmer as UK prime minister, has put social housing at the centre of his policy platform of greater public control over “the essentials of life”. "}],[{"start":64.95,"text":"He has talked about building half a million council houses this decade, saying that a decent home “should be a human right enshrined in UK law”."}],[{"start":72.7,"text":"Ministers on Thursday trumpeted a 26 per cent year-on-year increase in the number of affordable homes on which construction started, to 42,499 in 2025-26. "}],[{"start":86.5,"text":"However, England’s biggest housing associations fear momentum will be lost after government agency Homes England imposed annual caps on project spending and refused to release money upfront to buy land, instead linking grants to when houses are started. "}],[{"start":102,"text":"They are now urging ministers to step in and reverse the decision, saying it risks slowing the construction of subsidised housing. "}],[{"start":109.25,"text":"Kate Henderson, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, warned that failure to resolve budgets swiftly would have “a serious knock-on effect on development pipelines”. "}],[{"start":119.7,"text":"Housing associations had put in bids to build about 70,000 homes by 2029 through Labour’s Social and Affordable Homes Programme after being asked by government to be “ambitious”."}],[{"start":130.5,"text":"But in a letter to chancellor Rachel Reeves, Henderson said they have been asked by Homes England “to reduce those bids to reflect the grant funding available in the early years of the programme”. "}],[{"start":140.35,"text":"Henderson warned that this could mean “at least 17,000 fewer housing starts in the next three years”."}],[{"start":146.4,"text":"When surveyed by the National Housing Federation, “more than 60 per cent of [housing association] respondents are delaying or scaling back planned delivery”, she said, with starts reduced by more than 30 per cent in the first three years. "}],[{"start":160.3,"text":"A cut of 17,000 homes amounts to almost 10 per cent of the total new affordable housing built in England over the past three years."}],[{"start":169.60000000000002,"text":"Clare Miller, chief executive of Clarion Housing Group, is among the heads of 21 housing associations to have backed the letter to Reeves. “We’re ambitious to deliver thousands more affordable homes, and we can move quickly if the funding is there. Asking us to scale back our bids not only risks slowing delivery but also means it will take longer to reduce waiting lists and tackle homelessness,” she said. "}],[{"start":192.65000000000003,"text":"Officials insisted that the delay was not linked to demands from Starmer for capital spending cuts to fund the long-delayed Defence Investment Plan, saying that Homes England had been required to stick to its own annual budget limits."}],[{"start":206.70000000000005,"text":"Detailed budgets have only been set for the current spending review period, which runs to 2030 for capital projects, raising concerns about where the money will be found for later years of the housing programme."}],[{"start":218.60000000000005,"text":"Homes England said: “During the competitive assessment process, bidders were asked to consider how much of their grant funding would be drawn down each year. They were not asked to reduce the total grant they had bid for, and we have been excited to see big and bold bids made as part of this process.”"}],[{"start":242.15000000000006,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1782454563_8825.mp3"}