Associations forecast £17bn new homes spend in 2020

English housing associations plan to spend nearly £17bn building new homes this year, which if delivered would mark an increase of a third on last year.

The figures, which came in the latest quarterly survey from the Regulator of Social Housing say housing associations have already contractually committed to spending on new homes of £11bn in 2020, with a further £5.9bn of spending forecast.

In 2019 associations spent £12.6bn on new stock, meaning that if the forecast spend of £16.9bn is achieved, it would mark a 34% rise in investment in new homes.

This is not certain, as at this point last year associations were forecasting they would spend £15bn in 2019.

The quarterly report from the regulator pointed out that variances resulted from timing slippage, with providers often over estimating expenditures in order to prudently forecast development cash flows by.

The quarterly data also revealed an 14% spike in the number of unsold open market sales properties on the books of registered providers in the last three months, while the number of unsold affordable home ownership homes rose by 4%.

It said the number of unsold affordable homes ownership properties had risen to 6,943 by the end of December and the number of unsold open market sale properties had risen to 2,537, up from 2,229 in September.