The United Kingdom will experience a 16 percent drop in publicly funded affordable residential development during the next decade — further compounding the need for private capital to help solve the country's housing crisis.
U.K. development consultancy Make NW says 355,898 new U.K. affordable homes were delivered through government funding channels during the past decade, but a recent £39 billion ($52.89 billion) announcement on housebuilding by the government — called the Social and Affordable Homes Program — shows 300,000 affordable houses will be financed through the public purse during the next 10 years. This amounts to a 16 percent drop in delivery.
Patrick Hickey, director of Make NW, says the drop in development could cause additional challenges on some residential sites that have “more marginal viability,” which only stack up financially for the developer due to grant funding for affordable homes.
Nevertheless, he says, it is also
