Chancellor John Healey today committed to providing an ‘additional £430m' to tackle rough sleeping, alongside a package of support for social housing and construction.

He said in his Budget speech: ‘We've already promised everyone sleeping rough a route off the streets this winter, and today I confirm a further £430m to keep that offer open for the rest of this Parliament, not just this winter, but every winter.

‘This is a moral mission for me. It's a moral mission for the Prime Minister. It is a moral mission for the Labour Party.'

The Treasury paper released alongside the Budget underlined the Government's 'greater emphasis on early intervention', and said a new category of ringfenced spending would be introduced at the 2027 Spending Review. It said the investment in rough sleeping 'will provide individual relief whilst also reducing the significant fiscal cost of each individual sleeping rough, estimated at around £14,000 a year'.

The Chancellor said the Government would increase council home construction by extending cheaper borrowing for councils and make land sold to social housing providers VAT-free. Announcing the move, he emphasised: ‘The Conservatives sold off our council homes. Now Labour is now building them back.'

He said an additional £1.5bn would be provided for the social and affordable housing programme, bringing the total commitment to £40bn.

Building regulations policy will remain stable, he added, with no major changes except in the case of critical safety issues, and biodiversity requirements will be removed for more brownfield sites.

The Chancellor also announced a new first time buyer ISA to replace the lifetime ISA, and £4.7bn for the new Your First equity loan scheme for first time buyers without family support, funded by £4.7bn of government-backed lending.

Responding to the announcements, chair of the Local Government Association Eamonn O'Brien said: ‘Extra funding to tackle rough sleeping and for social housing is positive. However, no overall funding increase for local government means councils will continue to struggle to meet demand and provide services to our communities.'

This week Cllr O'Brien called on councils to act as ‘convenors' after attending the first-ever rough sleeping summit in Downing Street.

Policy lead for finance at senior officers' group Solace Patrick Melia welcomed the announcements to support the delivery of new social and affordable homes, and said they reflected the ‘pivotal role councils will play in meeting the country's housing ambitions'.

‘However, delivering more homes will require sustained investment in local government capacity and capability alongside investment in bricks and mortar.'

Jonathan Pearson, director at Residentially, a chartered surveyors firm specialising in affordable housing, said: 'Housing associations and developers have faced a difficult few years, and the new measures in today's Budget could provide will be crucial to helping them get on and deliver the number of homes our country desperately needs.

'The additional £1.5bn for the Social and Affordable Homes Programme is particularly welcome. However, it's not just about how much funding is being made available, but how soon housing associations can access it. Many of the registered providers I work with already have affordable housing developments they could progress if the funding was available, so bringing forward this investment will allow them to get these projects moving more quickly.'