Why are we promoting shared ownership and not social rent and other affordable products?

As the trade body for housing associations, we campaign for more social rented homes. During the general election in December 2019 we called for the new government to end homelessness and boost social and economic opportunities for millions by committing to an ambitious £12.8bn-a-year housebuilding programme. Find out more. 

But we need more homes of all types to meet housing need. In 2018/19 housing associations built more than 14,000 new shared ownership homes – a 28% increase on the previous year. This represented over 6% of total housebuilding. Our research shows we need to build 25,000 shared ownership homes each year to meet housing need in this part of the market.

We also believe that the general public has a better understanding of social rented homes and who can and can’t apply for them. Social rented housing is mainly allocated by need through local councils, and this does not lend itself to a direct advertising campaign in the same way.