When two plus two makes five, and 150,000 equals 85,000

Steve and I have touched on this one frequently, but it’s worth a reminder for our newer Red Brick readers.
When you hear ministers saying they will build ‘up to 150,000’ new affordable homes over the next four years, they actually mean up to 85,000.
Of those 150,000 they promise around 65,000 have already been started or were in the pipeline from the previous Labour government.
Also, when they talk about £4bn being invested into affordable housing, remember that around £2bn of that is the money already committed to build out the remaining 65,000 homes from Labour’s National Affordable Housing Programme. So the real figure is about half.
The Tory government is planning to build up to 85,000 additional affordable homes in the next four years. That’s not many and that’s the key point.