‘Grip the housing crisis or accept managed decline’ G15 chair tells government

The chair of the G15 group has warned the government its 1.5m homes target is under threat unless it takes urgent action to help housing associations build at scale.

Fiona Fletcher-Smith, who is also chief executive of L&Q, warned ministers “the time to act is now” as affordable housing delivery slows in London.

She said: “Either government grips the housing crisis or accepts that it is managing decline. Housing associations have the experience, scale, and public service ethos to deliver the right homes, for the right people and in the right places.”

Fletcher-Smith’s comments come as several members of the G15 group, which consists of large housing associations in London, are scale back development in the face of squeezed balance sheet capacity and rising costs.

Inflation and rising expenditure for building safety costs, stock improvement and decarbonisation costs are combining with falling interest cover to make increasing development difficult for many providers in London.

Figures from the G15 published last year show its members’ combined development pipeline more than halved from 14,658 homes in 2022/23 to just 6,387 in 2023/24 .Only 796 homes were started in the first quarter of 2024/25, a 34% drop from the previous year.

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The G15 is urging the government to use the Spending Review to “restore financial certainty to the sector” by introducing a 10-year rent settlement at CPI plus one per cent – in contrast to the five-year settlement proposed by ministers.

The group also wants a long-term successor to the Affordable Homes Programme, the restoration of rent convergence and a new warm and decent homes fund. It is calling for social landlords to be given equal access to building safety funding.

Fletcher-Smith said: “Although this crisis began before the new government took office, the responsibility to fix it now lies with them. A lack of social and affordable homes will directly affect every Londoner, not just those on waiting lists. With the right policies and funding from the spending review, we can reverse the slowdown, help the government meet its 1.5 million homes target, and provide the room to grow that London and Londoners so desperately need