On 7 November, Homes England and the Greater London Authority launched bidding guidance for the new Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) which will provide £39 billion in funding for new homes over the next decade.  Bidding is expected to open in February 2026.

To accompany these two documents, MHCLG has issued a Policy Statement explaining how it expects the SAHP to be deployed, and Guidance detailing the strategic priorities of the Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities, which will need to be reflected in bids to provide homes in the areas covered by EMSAs. Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook has also written about the launch to registered providers of social housing, including local authorities with housing.

Key points from the Policy Statement include:

• The aim is that the SAHP will provide 300,000 homes over the 10 years to 2036, of which 60% will be for social rent; the rest will include homes for shared ownership, affordable rent and intermediate and London Living Rent, but there are no specific numerical targets for the latter.
• Bids for funding can be made via two routes:
  • Strategic Partnership – an arrangement which provides long-term multi-year funding agreements with larger providers
  • Continuous Market Engagement – this will provide an ongoing opportunity to bid on a scheme-by-scheme basis, but there will also be a new facility to bundle schemes into ‘portfolios’.
• Several features of the new arrangements are intended to encourage bids from councils as part of the Government’s objective of reinvigorating council housing.
  • The approach will be flexible, with no standard grant rate; there will be no limit on the use of RTB receipts and councils will be able to combine grant and receipts.
  • The CME portfolio option is intended to enable more support for regeneration schemes by requiring that portfolios but not necessarily all the schemes within them must deliver a net increase in homes. There will also be an option to “smooth VFM assessments across a portfolio”.
  • 5.5 million has been provided to 29 councils via the Council Housebuilding Support Fund to help them develop bids to the SAHP.
• The 2.5 billion in low-interest loans announced in the Spending Review will only be available to Private Registered Providers, who will be expected to bid for allocations alongside their SAHP bids.