Business secretary Vince Cable has said the government could offer guarantees to housing associations to trigger a new house building boom.
Under the plan, the guarantees would be used to attract investors into housing, including social housing, without showing up as liabilities on the government balance sheet. In turn, social housing providers would deliver mixed-tenure developments at no extra cost to the public purse.
‘There is large unmet demand for social housing which may be self-financing if built in conjunction with private housing,’ said Mr Cable in a speech to think tank the Centre Forum.