Homes started for social rent funded by Homes England have risen 43% year-on-year according to the agency’s housing statistics for the year to 31 March.

The data said there were 18,942 Homes England-funded starts of all tenures in the year, a slight increase of 1% on the same period the previous year.

However, within that, social rented starts increased by 43% to 5,680. There was a corresponding 27% decrease in shared ownership and rent to buy starts to 2,800 and an 18% decrease in affordable rent starts to 2,665.