Affordable Homes Programme (AHP)

Infrastructure and Construction

Record date: 31 March 2026

Whole-life cost: £12.2bn
Published schedule: 03/01/2021 – 31/03/2030
NISTA delivery confidence: AMBER
Senior responsible owner: Emma Payne

What the project is for

The Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) is the grant funding vehicle used by Government for the delivery of social and affordable housing in England. It allocates grant funding to Registered Providers of social housing to help support the capital costs of developing affordable housing for rent or sale. In 2023, revised targets were agreed with the delivery agencies which re-baselined the Programme to a new delivery range of 110,000-130,000; this was announced in 2024.

Departmental delivery commentary

The SRO Delivery Confidence Assessment (DCA) rating at 25/26 Q4 remained at Amber. Following the data received from agencies, we have now reached at least the lower end of the overall target range of 110,000-130,000 homes. We expect a further c.10,000 housing starts with deadline extensions to follow in 26/27. While the GLA did not meet its 2021–26 target, it remains confident that delivery will increase under the extended timetable. This confidence is supported by its 2025/26 performance, which saw the highest number of starts delivered in the programme to date.

Schedule

There has been no change to the schedule for the programme. 

Cost

The WLC remains the same. There has been a minor variance in year by year budgets following business planning outcomes in the department. We intend for the programme to spend to its full budget.

Benefits

These benefits consist of increased housing supply from the construction of new social and affordable units (measured by Land Value Uplift), distributional benefits and wider fiscal impacts.