The government has committed £409m to the West Midlands’ social housing programme, contributing towards 3,200 new social homes for the region.
The funding, confirmed by the Prime Minister this week, follows a partnership between Mayor of the West Midlands Richard Parker, the government and Homes England. The mayor said the money would sit alongside his own housing funds to deliver homes genuinely affordable for local people.
The region currently has 7,450 households, including 14,976 children, living in temporary accommodation, costing local councils tens of millions of pounds a year. A further 65,335 households are on social housing waiting lists.
Since Parker took office in May 2024, the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) says it has contracted 7,237 new homes in the past year – more than ten times the annual average of 623 achieved before he became mayor. Of those, 2,452 were affordable homes, including 1,086 for social rent.
Parker said: “For decades there’s been a chronic underinvestment in council homes and genuinely affordable housing – and it’s left us with the housing crisis we face today. I believe people deserve better, which is why my focus has been on fixing the mistakes of the past and rebuilding our housing stock.
“We’ve already started turning around years of underinvestment in social housing but the prime minister’s announcement today will see us work together as a region and take this social housing mission to the next level.
“Nearly 15,000 children in our region are living in temporary accommodation. I want that number coming down and I want it coming down quickly. We will change that by giving people the housing stability and security they need to get on in life.”
Coventry resident David Hopper, 42, who moved into a Midland Heart social rent apartment after two and a half years of homelessness following his mother’s death, and the loss of his job as a toolmaker during the pandemic, said: “It’s changed my life. I was trying to rebuild my life and kept failing because I couldn’t move on without my own home.”
Sunita Kaur Singh, a mother of three who spent much of the last 20 years moving between temporary accommodation and women’s refuges while escaping an abusive ex-partner, has since moved into a Midland Heart social rent house. She said: “Getting this house feels like the answer to all my prayers. I never want to move from here.”
The £409m is the first funding released from the region’s £1.7bn Social and Affordable Homes Programme, which runs until March 2035 and is targeting at least 10,000 affordable new homes across the region over the decade. Parker set an earlier target of 2,000 social rent homes a year across the region by 2028.
Under the arrangement, the mayor and Homes England will jointly set out which types of homes are built and which sites are prioritised for construction.
The funding also contributes to the region’s £3.8bn Futures Fund, which combines money from the West Midlands Combined Authority, the West Midlands Pension Fund, Homes England, the National Wealth Fund and other national investment bodies to support regeneration, housebuilding and job creation.
Main image: Mayor Richard Parker (left) with Coventry resident David Hopper
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