The government announced plans in the Budget to invest a further £9.5 billion in the Affordable Homes Programme.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said that the government will in total allocate £12.2 billion of grant funding from 2021-22 to support the creation of affordable homes across England.

The government is also cutting the interest rates for investment in social housing by one percentage point, and making an extra £1.15 billion of discounted loans available for local infrastructure projects.

Tom Slingsby, chief executive of property developer Southern Grove, which focuses heavily on creating affordable homes, said: “This cash boost for affordable homes will underpin building for many years to come and is a declaration of war on a housing crisis that isn’t going away.

“Only sufficient provision of affordable homes in the right areas can prevent the sort of social inconsistencies that appear when high property prices put key areas of UK cities off limits to younger workers and their families.

“We know from conversations we have constantly with housing associations that the appetite is there to keep building through economic cycles and this fund will ensure that will happen.”