This Autumn’s Budget may have been the most nervously awaited budget for some time. It finally arrived amongst the controversary of the OBR publishing its economic forecast ahead of the Budget itself. Despite all this anticipation, in hindsight, the shadow of the announcements in the spring, probably meant this budget would always be less impactful for the housing sector.

Nonetheless, there were still some important inclusions and exclusions that will have an impact on the delivery and maintenance of affordable housing. We have considered some of the key points in more detail below:

Funding

An additional £1.5bn will be provided to the Warm Homes Plan in the sector’s continued campaign against fuel poverty. Ensuring energy efficient homes for the most vulnerable in our society is imperative; this will help to deliver savings on customers’ bills, giving them more available money to spend on other essential items which will improve the quality of their lives.

Disappointingly Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates remain frozen; the Resolution Foundation believes that this will result in an affordability gap of 17% between the support low-income private tenants receive and the 30^th percentile of local rents in 2026. This is causing more stress on household incomes for poorer families who can’t afford to own their home and rent in the private sector, because of a lack of sufficient local affordable housing being available.

Most obviously delayed, was the key issue of rent convergence, which many registered providers hope will result in a £3 increase. It seems this decision has been pushed back to January 2026. If this increase does land in the new year, we hope this will help with viability issues and, coupled with the new Social and Affordable Homes Programme, help start building toward the 1.5 million homes we need.

Regionalised and devolved delivery of the £5bn National Housing Delivery fund was also confirmed. The budget outlined that £1.3bn will go to Mayoral Authorities and that the entire fund will be distributed across seven UK regions. More funding for regeneration outside of London seems central to the Government’s strategy for devolution as the budget noted that it wants Mayoral authorities to set strategic direction for social and affordable housing in their areas.

Jobs & Skills

Free training for all apprentices up to the age of 25 at SMEs was confirmed; we hope this will help future talent access our sector. More construction professionals are desperately needed to fight the housing crisis.

£48m to support 350 new Planners, delivered by a planning graduate scheme and a careers hub to retrain existing professionals, was also promised. Planning departments are critical to the supply of new homes and we hope this proposal exceeds its own relatively modest goals.

Despite the anticipation and controversary surrounding this Autumn Statement, we think that overall it was a bit of a mixed bag for housing. Going forward, we put our focus on understanding how the new Social and Affordable Homes Programme can be best utilised to bring forward new and more warm and safe affordable housing for those who need it most in our society.