Spending Review 2025

BuildEast welcomes the government’s landmark commitment in the 2025 Comprehensive Spending Review to a £39 billion, 10-year Affordable Homes Programme, marking the largest boost to social and affordable housing investment in a generation. This long-term funding horizon is critical to enabling sustained delivery of the high-quality homes that are needed across the East.

We particularly acknowledge the Northern Housing Consortium’s On the Day briefing, which underscores the importance of devolving powers to local leaders and integrated settlements to ensure housing investment is tailored to local priorities and drives inclusive growth. BuildEast supports this approach and looks forward to working in partnership with our regional local authorities to maximize the impact of this funding.

The Spending Review also introduces a 10-year social housing rent settlement, with annual rent increases capped at Consumer Price Index (CPI) plus 1%. This provides much-needed certainty and stability for housing providers, enabling us to plan long-term investment in both new build and existing stock maintenance. Importantly, the government has committed to a consultation on rent convergence, aiming for a fair and consistent approach to aligning rents for all social housing properties. BuildEast supports this consultation process and the principle of convergence, which will help rebuild financial capacity for housing associations and councils to deliver more social homes.

We also recognise the vital contributions of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and the National Housing Federation (NHF), whose advocacy has been instrumental in securing this multi-year funding and rent settlement. Their calls for adequate grant funding, support for building safety and decarbonisation, and a clear long-term housing strategy are reflected in the Spending Review’s provisions.

We look forward to collaborating with partners across the sector to ensure these commitments translate into tangible benefits for communities in the East.