Campaigners would like all affordable housing to be for social rent and to be delivered by councils

On 19th August, the Labour Campaign for Council Housing wrote to Chancellor John Healy, calling on him to cancel all local authority Housing Revenue Account debt.  This would provide the additional capacity to enable councils to maintain and improve their existing homes, as well as building new homes for social rent.  The letter pointed out that this debt had risen significantly over recent years to fund improvements, arguing that servicing the current level of debt left "non enough money in the system to allow council housing to be run properly".

Angela Rayner is being urged to end support for affordable rent tenures and focus all grant funding on social rent, as well as ending the Right to Buy and abandoning the sector's long-term rent settlement.  In a letter sent to the Housing Secretary on 27th July, the Labour Campaign for Council Housing argued that the Social and Affordable Homes Programme, as currently constituted, will not achieve the new government’s pledge to deliver the biggest council housebuilding programme since the post-war period.  This would only be achieved through a significant increase in grant funding, which should be "directed at social rent council housing".