Housing bosses press Rachel Reeves to unlock more funds for affordable homes
Housing bosses representing 1.5m social homes across England will press Rachel Reeves to reclassify affordable housing as critical infrastructure spending, amid a battle between the chancellor and Angela Rayner.There is deep dissatisfaction with the level of funding for social homes in the spending review due next week.Rayner, the housing secretary, is one of the last remaining holdouts in negotiations with the Treasury over departmental spending settlements.The Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government has been battling for more funding for the affordable homes programme as well as trying to preserve cash for local councils, homelessness and regional growth initiatives.
Negotiations were “down to the wire”, one government source said.Six housing association groups have written to Rayner asking for social housing to be classified as critical infrastructure, which would allow Reeves to commit extra funds without breaking her fiscal rules.There is more freedom around capital spending for the chancellor, who has £113bn to invest under changes to the fiscal rules.Housing bosses have argued that building more properties would help tackle the extraordinary backlog for social homes and benefit the hundreds of thousands of people living in temporary accommodation.The chief executive of Peabody, one of the largest housing providers in south-east England, made the same call in the Guardian last Saturday.
The submission comes from partnerships in Greater Manchester, Liverpool, Hull and East Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, and York and North Yorkshire, and Homes for the South West.Nick Atkin, the chief executive of Yorkshire Housing, said: “Housing has a pivotal role in economic growth.Reclassifying investment in affordable homes as infrastructure spending is a vital step to unlocking the long-term confidence and funding needed to build at the scale to meet the government’s ambition.“This was echoed at a recent roundtable with senior figures from major investment firms and leading economists, where there was clear consensus that reclassification would boost investor confidence, create jobs, increase lending and ultimately drive the growth in housebuilding our country urgently needs.”In their submission, the groups said reclassification was critical to ending short-term funding cycles for affordable homes.
“Reclassification is the only way we can we deliver the pipeline of new homes needed, alongside the decarbonisation of existing homes and the renewal of our towns and cities,” the submission said.“Housing is fundamentally essential and significant infrastructure, and therefore funding should be classified in the same way as other significant national projects such as road, rail, schools and hospitals.With the support of recent planning reforms, new homes could be delivered at the pace and scale needed to tackle the housing crisis.”There are 14 areas of national life listed as critical infrastructure, including defence, data, energy, food, health and transport, but not housing.If housing were to be included, it would make it easier for spending on it to be excluded from normal fiscal rules, as it would not count against government debt.
Shelter and National Housing Federation have suggested that about 90,000 social homes a year are needed to hit the government’s manifesto target of 1.5m new homes, at a cost of about £11.8bn each year.The investment is forecast to support almost 140,000 jobs and generate significantly higher economic output, breaking even within three years.
Allegations of rape at rowing club ‘deeply concerning’ say Sport England and UK Sport
Allegations of rape and harassment at one of Britain’s most prestigious rowing clubs have been described as “deeply concerning” by Sport England and UK Sport.Both funding bodies have raised their concerns with British Rowing after the Telegraph reported there had been three separate alleged rape incidents involving male rowers within the past five years at the Leander Club, which supplied more than half of Team GB’s rowers at the Paris Olympics.According to the Telegraph, the women rowers at the club had taken to wearing white ribbons and pink vests in 2024 to protest against what was described as “the worst-kept secret in British rowing”, and that several male members also joined them in protest.In a statement, Sport England, the funding body of grassroots sport in England, said it had raised the matter with British Rowing and urged the victims to go to the police.“These are deeply concerning allegations regarding both behaviours and cultures, and our thoughts are with those who have been impacted,” it said
Roldan wins Tour of Britain stage two in Saltburn as Faulkner takes overall lead
Mara Roldan pulled off a successful late breakaway on the steep approach to Saltburn-by-the-Sea, winning the second stage of the Tour of Britain Women by 12 seconds.The 21-year-old, who hails from Canada’s Yukon territory, made a push for victory with 14km to go and held on to win ahead of Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek). British teenager Cat Ferguson (Movistar) finished fifth for the second stage in a row, just behind third-placed Ally Wollaston (FDJ-Suez) and Roldan’s Picnic-Post NL teammate, Megan Jastrab.Also in the chasing group was Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly), who finished ninth but did enough to take the overall leader’s green jersey. Faulkner, the Olympic road race champion in Paris, leads a frustrated Markus by just four seconds
Carlos Alcaraz returns to French Open final after Lorenzo Musetti retires hurt
Carlos Alcaraz continued his imperious march through the clay-court season as he reached his second consecutive French Open final by defeating Lorenzo Musetti, the eighth seed, who was forced to retire with a left thigh injury while Alcaraz led 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-0, 2-0.After a difficult start to the year, the 22-year-old has found his way in a clay-court season that has yielded Masters 1000 titles in Monte Carlo and Rome. He will now attempt to become the third man this century, after Gustavo Kuerten and Rafael Nadal, to retain the French Open. Alcaraz, the second seed in Paris, is also the fifth-youngest man in the open era to reach five grand slam finals and he will attempt to extend his record to winning all of them. He has won 21 matches and lost once on clay this year
Horse racing: Minnie Hauk flies home for Oaks glory after thrilling Epsom duel – as it happened
The punters put their faith in Desert Flower’s stamina before the Oaks on Friday, backing the 1,000 Guineas winner down to start at 11-10, but they left Epsom poorer and wiser as Aidan O’Brien’s Minnie Hauk, the Cheshire Oaks winner, ground down her stable companion, Whirl, in the final strides to win the third Classic of 2025 by a neck.It was race that unfolded just as O’Brien would have hoped, as Whirl set off hard to make it a stamina test with Minnie Hauk waiting to pounce on her outside. Desert Flower’s class was enough to carry her into third place, four lengths behind Whirl, but she did not threaten to pick up the leaders at any stage after coming under some pressure with three furlongs still to run.The victory was O’Brien’s 11th in the fillies’ Classic, which puts him within sight of Robert Robson’s all-time record of 13 Oaks victories, set between 1802 and 1825.“She was just ready to run at Chester,” O’Brien said
Your Guardian Sport weekend: French Open finals, football, cricket and much more
Join Emillia Hawkins and Barry Glendenning with all the breaking news as we build towards Saturday afternoon’s England men’s World Cup qualifier against Andorra at 5pm (all times BST). The match is being staged at Espanyol’s 40,000-capacity RCDE Stadium in Barcelona. since Andorra’s national stadium is unavailable after hosting the Games of the Small States of Europe. The last time the Three Lions visited Andorra in October 2021, they won 5-0.Over-by-over coverage gets under way before the first ball of the day at Taunton is due at 1pm
Winner takes it all: Pride of Arras channels spirit of 70s for the Derby
Lord Derby and Sir Charles Bunbury, who flipped a coin in 1779 to decide whose name would be attached to a new race at Epsom, would still recognise the Derby’s switchback route around the Surrey downs if they could somehow be spirited along for the latest renewal of the Classic on Saturday. While so much else has changed at Epsom since Bunbury’s colt, Diomed, was the first winner nearly a quarter of a millennium ago, they would see a kindred spirit in Vimy Aykroyd, the owner of Pride Of Arras, one of the favourites to be the 246th.Enthusiastic owner-breeders, mating the best with the best and then hoping for the best, were the bedrock of thoroughbred racing from its earliest days. For the first 200 years of Classics at Epsom, the typical winners were three-year-olds that had been bred and raced by owners with a lifelong passion for both sides of the game. Breeding a Derby winner was as much of an achievement, if not more so, than having it race in your colours
Straw review – Taraji P Henson rises above Tyler Perry’s tortured Netflix thriller
Cardiff’s first modern art museum will aim to showcase Welsh talent
Explain it to me quickly: What is aura farming, and is it cool or cringe?
Jimmy Kimmel: ‘Between Elon and Melania, Trump now has two foreigners who won’t sleep with him’
Latex, Teletubbies and Miranda July: putting my way through feminist mini-golf course Swingers
The ones we love: all 16 of REM’s albums – ranked!