By Chloe Fletcher, HQN director

On Sunday evening, The Times reported that Angela Rayner has set up a council housing revolution to be announced at the budget on 30 September. This is music to my ears – something I’ve lobbied for, for decades.

A change in the way that investment in new council housing is accounted for along with limits on Right to Buy discounts could finally pave the way for a renaissance in council housebuilding that this country desperately needs. With the promised long-term rent settlement, they would be the final pieces in the jigsaw after the self-financing settlement in 2012 and the lifting of the debt caps in 2018.

It’d put councils in a similar position to housing associations where they could plan new development over their long-term business plans, using social housing grant and borrowing which wouldn’t count as a double subsidy from the government.

More councils could start to look at the balance of investment in the existing stock and new homes, making sensible decisions on how and when to build to meet local demand. With the trailed changes to Right to Buy discounts and eligibility, that investment would also not be put at risk by councils being forced to sell new homes off at a huge discount to tenants within years of building them and being unable to repay the debt.

It’d finally recognise that the borrowing associated with building new social housing by councils doesn’t get paid back through general taxation, as it generates a rental income, and building those homes and getting families out of temporary housing would be significantly cheaper for the taxpayer overall.

It could also put subsidies for homeownership on a fairer footing and make it equal for all regardless of whether you happen to have a council tenancy, a housing association tenancy, a private rented tenancy or be stuck at home with your parents.

So, it’s brilliant news and I’m looking forward to seeing the detail next week but I think we should be talking about a council housing evolution rather than a revolution.

In the last ten years, councils have built, on average, about 1,700 per year. In the 1950s, it averaged about 147,000 a year. Although some individual councils have started a decent development pipeline, it’s obvious this isn’t widespread and the gap between where we are and where we want to get to is significant.

Past research by the LGA, NFA and ARCH suggested that councils could work up to building about 100,000 new homes each year, which would help boost the economy, save councils tens of thousands of pounds on temporary accommodation and help meet wider health and well-being goals for the government.

I helped commission that work, and I still very much believe that’s what we should all be working towards. But I also feel like I should temper expectations amongst politicians and people on the waiting list that we’ll be able to get to those levels any time soon.

These changes, if confirmed, would give councils across England the foundations to think about new development or build up their pipelines, but in the current climate, with so many councils cash strapped and needing to invest in their existing homes as well as lacking the expertise and staff, we’ll need to build up slowly and it’ll take time.

Housing associations are also having difficulty building social homes at the moment and they’ve been building significantly more than councils in the last few decades. We know that we also need significantly more grant funding in the Affordable Housing Programme in the Spending Review to really make a difference to our recent levels of development, and that planning reforms need to be given time to help unlock land.

However, after years of austerity and cutting investment in social housing, to both councils and housing associations it’s very heartening to hear that the new government is really committed to building more social housing and wants councils to be a part of that – so I’ll let myself get a little bit excited for next Wednesday.