The chief executive of Leeds-based housing association Unity Homes and Enterprise has described Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak’s Budget announcement of a £12 billion multi-year extension of the Government’s Affordable Homes Programme as “good news on the surface.”
In a statement, Ali Akbor OBE said:
“It is always positive when extra money is promised to enable more affordable homes to be built.
“However, whilst the Government’s commitment to increasing home ownership is well-known, we must never forget the needs of those who do not have the resources to buy their own properties and probably never will have.
“The country remains gripped by a housing crisis which the familiar rhetoric of successive Prime Ministers, Chancellors and Housing Secretaries has failed to solve.
“The housing association sector is desperately keen to play our part is delivering the many thousands of new homes for social rent that families urgently need.
“If the Government is serious about tackling the national housing crisis, it is now time to ‘get it done.’”
Ali Akbor OBE