Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the average (a) rent and (b) proportion of market rent is of the homes built or converted as part of the affordable rent model.

The average (median) rent of new Affordable Rent lets was £109 per week in England and £165 per week in London in 2013-14. These figures represent 80% of market rent across England and 55% of market rent in London.

The Affordable Rent model allows for more new affordable housing to be delivered with lower levels of taxpayer capital subsidy and by levering in more private investment. The programme is helping deliver £15 billion of private investment in new affordable housing over the current spending review (2011-15), alongside £4.5 billion of public investment. Social rent and affordable rent go hand in hand; both help provide accommodation for those on low incomes.

As the National Audit Office has observed: “the Department selected the best delivery model open to it for the funds it had available” and “the Department has so far achieved its policy objective to maximise the number of homes delivered within the available grant funding” (National Audit Office, “Financial viability of the social housing sector: introducing the Affordable Homes Programme”, 4 July 2012, HC465, pp. 6-7).

Our Affordable Housing programme is set to deliver a further 275,000 new affordable homes between 2015 and 2020, levering in £38 billion of public and private investment.