Securing the future of England’s council housing report
The report aims to help ensure that councils can provide more, and better, publicly owned housing.
Contents
Council housing budget survey results (January 2025)
We invited 112 councils with a Housing Revenue Account (HRA) – those we are working with on our ‘Securing the Future of Council Housing’ report – to complete a survey on their HRA financial strain. The survey was open between Friday 6 December 2024 and Monday 6 January 2025.
We have now published the results of the survey of 76 ‘stockholding’ councils (those that manage their own council homes), a cross-party group of councils collectively managing over 870,000 council homes across the country.
Following their major report signed by 109 cross-party councils, this survey provides further evidence of the scale of crisis council housing budgets have been forced into by capped incomes, soaring costs and frequent policy changes since 2010.
Overall, the survey found 9 in 10 council housing budgets under financial stress, taking or expecting to need to take substantial action* or use emergency funds to balance their books by 2029. For example, 61% of councils have already cancelled, paused or delayed housebuilding projects and more than one third have cut back on repairs and maintenance of council homes.
Survey headlines
Two-thirds of councils (67%) say they are at risk of being unable to balance their housing budgets by 2029/30.
- 9 in 10 (93%) had at least one indicator of financial stress – taking, or expecting to take, substantial action or needing to use reserves, to set a balanced budget by 2029/30.
- 61% of surveyed councils have already had to pause or delay developments.
- 37% have cut back on their repairs or maintenance.
By end the end of this parliament (start of 2029/30 financial year), to present a balanced budget:
- 71% of councils surveyed expect to cancel, pause or delay current projects
- 68% expect to need to scale back their overall commitments to redevelop or build new council homes
- 28% even expect to need to sell off existing council homes
- 45% are already forced to use their reserves to cover day to day spending
- 33% say that, at current use rates, they will use up their reserves by the end of this parliament (start of the 2029/30 financial year)
Responding to the anonymised survey, councils also reported being in discussions with government about exceptional financial support and fearing soon being unable to meet even their statutory obligations.
Detailed survey results
76 councils responded to the survey.
71 (93%) of the councils surveyed reported at least one indicator of financial stress:
- Having taken a substantial action due to financial strain on their HRA.
- Expecting to need to take a substantial action to set a balanced budget for the 2029/30 year.
- Using their reserves, or a substantial risk of needing to use their reserves to present a balanced budget by the 2029/2030 financial year.
All percentages shown are of all 76 respondent councils.
| Have you already had to do any of the following due to financial strain on your HRA? | No. of councils | % |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 50 | 66% |
| Make significant reductions to your planned and responsive maintenance, repairs and management programmes | 28 | 37% |
| Borrow to meet regular revenue spend | 8 | 11% |
|
Cancel, pause or delay housing developments: Cancel council housing developments Pause or delay council housing developments |
46 15 46 |
61% 20% 61% |
| Sell existing homes within HRA stock | 10 | 13% |
| Do you expect to have to do any of the following over the next five years to be able to set a balanced budget for the 2029/30 financial year? | No. of councils | % |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 69 | 91% |
| Make significant reductions to your planned and responsive maintenance, repairs and management programmes | 43 | 57% |
| Borrow in order to meet regular revenue spend | 16 | 21% |
|
Cancel, pause or delay housing developments: Cancel council housing developments Pause or delay council housing developments |
54 19 51 |
71% 25% 67% |
| Scale back your house building and redevelopment commitments | 52 | 68% |
| Sell existing homes within HRA stock | 21 | 28% |
| Is there a risk that you will need to make use of your reserves in order to present a balanced budget by the 2029/2030 financial year? | No. of councils | % |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 67 | 88% |
| A reasonable risk | 22 | 29% |
| A substantial risk | 11 | 14% |
| Already using reserves | 34 | 45% |
| Based on current use rate, will you exhaust your HRA reserves by the beginning of the 2029/2030 financial year? | No. of councils | % |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 25 | 33% |
| Is there a risk that you will not be able to present a balanced Housing Revenue Account budget for the 2029/2030 financial year? | No of councils | % |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 51 | 67% |
| A reasonable risk | 41 | 54% |
| A substantial risk | 10 | 13% |
*Substantial action includes:
- making significant reductions to planned maintenance or repairs
- cancelling, pausing or delaying council housing developments
- scaling back housebuilding and regeneration commitments
- selling existing homes within HRA stock
- borrowing in order to meet regular revenue spend