There are supposed to be, currently, 1.6 million families (or 4 million people) waiting for social housing. This is expected to rise.
But, in an unexpected perk of the crisis of global capitalism, 335 of those families might get somewhere thanks to the buyout of unsold developers’ stock by HMG. This is a £13 million pound tranche of what is apparently a £200 million fund to buy up unsold private built stock for social housing. So far this has bought up 2000 homes, we are told (1665 before this announcement, then).
I’m a little curious about the figures. 335 homes for £13 million equates to about £39,000 per site. Where are these sites?
But in any case, while this may help out a few builder/developers (and brickmakers, scaffolding leasers etc.), it is just a drop in the ocean of demand. Still, now Keynes is being discussed again, perhaps returning rent income to local authorities to allow them to build new stock could be pitched as an employment creation and business support policy.