UK prime minister Theresa May has committed an extra £2 billion to building new affordable housing ? but the figure is nowhere near high enough to solve the housing crisis, according to Royal British Institute of Architects president Ben Derbyshire.
Derbyshire, who took on the role of RIBA president last month, said that much more funding is necessary to undo years of under-investment in new housing.
"While it's good news that the prime minister has made fixing the housing crisis a central priority for the government, the extra £2 billion promised just won't meet the scale of investment needed to address decades of under-supply," said Derbyshire.
"The government spends billions of pounds a year subsidising private landlords because of a shortage of social housing," he continued. "They need to dial up the approach and investment, moving beyond describing the problems and big rhetoric to delivering solutions and the investment that will make the difference." Conservatives will spend £9 billion on housing over two years
May announced the extra funding in a speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester yesterday. The funding injection brings the government's total contribution to affordable housing construction to just shy of £9 billion over a two-year period.
The prime minister said councils and housing associations would be invited to bid for the money as part of a push towards "fixing our broken housing market".
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