The details of the Chancellor’s budget make clear that far more is needed to tackle the social and financial damage caused by our lack of social and genuinely affordable housing.

The OBR is now predicting that the Government will fail to meet its 1.5m target for new homes. More concerningly, it reports that councils have seen an increase in temporary accommodation costs of 20% per year since 2022/23, with further cost rises predicted.

The government must support councils to bring their temporary accommodation budgets under control, and help people move into high quality, secure and appropriate homes by increasing access to finance for housing investment. The £400m raised by the Chancellor’s new tax on the most expensive homes should be made available to councils to subsidize the development of social homes.

But councils and government can both go further. While the Chancellor has said the government will sell off unneeded assets, research by Habitat for Humanity Great Britain found that councils own over 8,000 long-term empty non-residential buildings, many of which could be quickly and affordably converted into thousands of great homes. Rather than relying on the private sector to build the homes we need, the huge number of empty spaces in public hands could be used in a way that helps balance the books, revives high streets, protects the planet and most importantly, provides families with the platform to thrive.