Affordable housing supply plummets 26% in a year

In the past year, 42,830 affordable homes became available in England - 15,000 less than in 2011/12 according to figures released today by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

The drop has been even more dramatic in the social rent sector - those homes that are let at low rents and are allocated on the basis of need. In the space of just 12 months, the number of those homes being added to the total stock of housing has dropped 53%, from 38,000 to 18,000.

It's clear that most of that decline is because housing associations have been building fewer homes. The number of acquisitions of properties by these associations has also fallen, but because acquisitions make up a smaller fraction of the total supply of affordable housing, the effect has been smaller.

In 50 local authorities, no additional social rent dwellings became available in 2012/13. In Epping Forest, no affordable housing, regardless of the type, was added to the stock in the past year.

Meanwhile, the availability of low-cost home ownership has also declined. There were 16,190 homes ownership completions in 2012-13 that were considered affordable according to the latest statistics.

The biggest decline has been seen in New Build HomeBuy, once the largest of the government's help to buy schemes, where buyers will initially pay for a share of the property, then pay rent on the remaining share. The availability of new homes on that scheme has now fallen to 3,570 from its peak of 14,880 in 2007/08.

We will continue to update this post as we analyse the numbers. In the meantime, look at the data, share your comments and tell us about any trends you've spotted or would like to know more about.

This post was updated to highlight the fact that this refers to additional housing rather than the total housing stock.