Affordable housing target 'on track'

THE government's housing agency is expected to meet targets to build more affordable homes.



The Homes and Communities Agency said it was on track to meet its delivery targets for 2012/13, following official statistics published on Friday (16 November).
In the first six months of the year, the agency completed 11,981 homes and started on site with a further 5,243, according to the statistics.
Of the homes completed, 6,375 were affordable – with a further 3,499 delivered under FirstBuy – equating to 38% of the agency's annual targets for affordable housing and FirstBuy combined.
Developers typically complete more homes during in the second half of an average year, prompting the agency to forecast that it will meet its 2012/13 target.
This goal is a combined affordable housing and FirstBuy corporate plan target of 26,250 completions by the end of March 2013.
Agency chief executive Pat Ritchie said: "With these half year statistics demonstrating a typical delivery profile, we are on track to meet our targets for the year."
Of the homes started on site, 3,310 were affordable, of which 96% came through the new Affordable Homes Programme, reflecting the predicted delivery profile.
The agency said it was also on track with its contribution of 123,000 new affordable homes to meet the government's aspiration to deliver up to 170,000 affordable homes by 2015.
Of these, some 55,000 affordable homes had been completed to date, equating to just under 45% of the delivery for which the agency is responsible.
Ms Ritchie said: "This is testament to the commitment of our partners and the action we have taken to build momentum in the new AHP."
She added: "It's particularly pleasing that FirstBuy is performing so strongly with 3,499 completions, and that of the affordable housing starts virtually all of them came through the AHP."
Ms Ritchie said it was also pleasing that a total of 55,000 new affordable homes had been completed – nearly half of those the agency was tasked with delivering by 2015.
A detailed breakdown of statistics – which exclude delivery in London – is available to download from the agency's Housing Statistics web page.

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