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Winckworth Sherwood’s Social Housing team points to the eight major challenges registered providers will need to consider in the year ahead...
Strategic partnerships Charlie Proddow, Partner and Head of Social Housing Strategic partnerships will become fundamental in enabling residential developers to deliver new housing at scale. It is increasingly clear that public funding alone cannot resolve many of the issues residential and social housing developers face; long-term strategic partnerships unlock sites, secure funding, and drive sustained housing delivery at scale. Winckworth Sherwood, in the summer
of 2025, conducted a major study into the impact of strategic partnerships on the sector. We found 67% of developers and social housing providers have embarked on strategic partnerships in the past 12 months, and a further 76% expect to do so in 2026 and beyond.
partnerships share risk, unlock land, provide access to funding and deliver shared expertise. Matt Cowen, Partner, Housing Regulation year will be the publication of the Government’s long-awaited housing strategy. Its contents will have a major
impact on providers’ activities, with calls from across the sector for this to provide a joined-up, outcome-based approach which tackles affordability and the urgent delivery of new homes. Institutional investment into the
affordable housing sector will continue to grow throughout 2026, with the deployed from a range of investors. continues to be a growing market to watch as the year progresses.
implement the results of several consultations that took place in 2025, Decent Homes Standard. These will have a big impact on providers’ activities, budgets and business plans for the years ahead. National Housing Bank welcomed Sarah Whitty, Partner, Housing Finance Social housing providers can expect a launch of the National Housing Bank under Homes England, a dedicated accelerate housing delivery across
the country. The National Housing Bank is expected to channel £16bn of public investment to leverage over £53bn of private capital to back the construction of approximately 500,000 For the sector, the National Housing
Bank will make available £2.5bn in low-interest loans to support social and affordable housing, alongside a broad suite of debt, equity and guarantee products tailored to enable complex and large-scale developments. This represents a step-change in the capacity, reducing the cost of capital and accelerating delivery at scale. Ruby Giblin, Partner, Housing Finance The results of the Government’s rent convergence consultation were delivered in January 2026. There is an optimism that the option to use convergence, taking into consideration local conditions, will slowly bring rents up to a ‘formula rent’ before the latest 10-year
with the then Government imposing the increases. Social housing providers have,
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