Housing associations forecast £17bn new homes spend in 2020

English housing associations plan to spend nearly £17bn on building homes this year, which if delivered would mark an increase of one-third on last year.

The figures, which were reported in the latest quarterly survey from the Regulator of Social Housing, say housing associations have already contractually committed to £11bn of new housing spending in 2020, with a further £5.9bn of money forecast.

In 2019, associations spent £12.6bn on new stock, meaning that if the forecast spend of £16.9bn is achieved, it will mark a 34% rise in investment in new homes.

This is not certain, as at this point last year associations forecasted they would spend £15bn in 2019. The quarterly report from the regulator pointed out that variances resulted from timing slippage, with providers often overestimating expenditure in order to prudently forecast development cash flows.

The quarterly data also revealed a 14% spike in the number of unsold open market sales properties on the books of registered providers in the last three months, while the number of unsold affordable homeownership homes rose by 4%.

It said total unsold affordable homeownership properties had risen to 6,943 by the end of December and the number of unsold open market sale properties had risen to 2,537, up from 2,229 in September.