This report provides an analysis of a sample of local authorities, two from each region of England, to test the resilience of social and affordable housing supply to further increases in build cost.

Key findings:

In every region, social and affordable housing supply is at risk. In the south and east of the country, 3 out of 8 councils in our sample – Ashford, Crawley and East Cambridgeshire – risk seeing no social and affordable housing delivered through Section 106 (S106) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, the planning mechanism used to require social and affordable housing in market-led schemes. Meanwhile, Cornwall risks seeing delivery slashed from 35% (the level required by council policy and delivered in 2019–20) to 16%. This is despite house prices being above the national average in all these places.