Chancellor pledges extra £500m for social homes in budget

Rachel Reeves at a rent-to-buy housing scheme in Liverpool. The chancellor said the housing crisis had created a generation locked out of the property market. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

The Treasury has announced an extra £500m for social homes in the budget, in what appears to be a compromise with the housing department, led by Angela Rayner, over the scale of ambition required in the sector.

The promise of an additional £500m for the government’s affordable homes programme (AHP) is intended to add up to 5,000 extra social homes. The Treasury said it will bring total investment in housing supply to £5bn.