Councils outside London can now bid for a share of the £21.8 million Council Housebuilding Support Fund, with money available specifically to build the capacity needed to bring more social and affordable housing sites forward.
The 2026/27 application window opened on 21st September 2026 and closes at 2pm on 2nd November 2026. The important planning angle is what the revenue funding can pay for: Homes England expressly includes technical expertise to secure planning permission, external consultants, project managers, interim staff, feasibility work, site investigation, pipeline development and partnership working.
This is not a construction grant and it is not a way to replace ordinary council expenditure. The funding must support additional activity that helps a council prepare stronger or faster bids to the £39bn Social and Affordable Homes Programme.
What the Council Housebuilding Support Fund can pay for
The fund is aimed at the early work and capacity that can determine whether a site ever reaches a deliverable housing bid. Homes England’s current guidance gives a deliberately broad range of eligible activity.
Councils can seek support for knowledge development, including training and upskilling staff; pipeline work, including studies to identify deliverable sites and strategies to unlock them; and pre-development or enabling work, including technical expertise and support needed to bring sites forward and secure planning permission.
It can also support partnership working with registered providers and developers, together with additional staffing such as interim officers, project managers and consultants bringing relevant technical expertise. The CHSF examples are additional or interim capacity; the guidance does not describe this as a general subsidy for routine permanent recruitment.
The wider Capacity to Build guidance is even more explicit about the type of early-stage work envisaged. It identifies feasibility and viability studies, site investigations, technical due diligence, and pipeline development and preparation.
For planning teams, that is a useful distinction. Planning and technical consultancy can be an eligible use of the fund where it is genuinely additional work linked to new housing activity. The same is true of temporary staffing or project management capacity needed to move sites towards a viable affordable housing proposal.
It is revenue funding, not money for construction
The fund is specifically described as revenue funding. It cannot be used for costs that have already been incurred, work that has already taken place, or costs that can be capitalised to the development itself.
Homes England also excludes costs that can already be met from other sources, including where a council has allocated its own resources. Day-to-day spending and business-as-usual activity are not eligible.
That does not mean existing staff or external consultants are automatically excluded. The guidance says applications covering staff or consultants must show that their work relates to new activity. In practice, the bid needs to show additional capacity or enabling work, rather than simply transferring an existing salary or consultancy budget onto the fund.
Who can apply and how much can a council seek?
The Council Housebuilding Support Fund is open to all councils in England outside London. Homes England particularly encourages councils already delivering through the Social and Affordable Homes Programme, councils close to being able to submit ambitious bids, and councils exploring delivery partnerships with private registered providers or developers.
London authorities are therefore excluded from this Homes England fund. There is no separate London Council Housebuilding Support Fund route identified in the current guidance. The capital Social and Affordable Homes Programme itself is different: outside London it is administered by Homes England, while London affordable housing funding is administered separately by the Greater London Authority.
The £21.8 million is available until 31st March 2029 and is split evenly across the three financial years from 2026/27 to 2028/29. A council can submit a single proposal for up to £300,000 in each financial year. The £300,000 ceiling is therefore per year, not a single cap across the whole three-year programme.
A proposal can cover several activities and can span more than one financial year where the council explains why that is necessary and how the work will support future Social and Affordable Homes Programme delivery. Funding is paid in the financial year in which the relevant activity is due to be completed.
Councils that received money through an earlier Council Housebuilding Support Fund round can apply again, but the new bid must support new activities and sites rather than repeat work already funded.
How bids will be assessed
Homes England will assess applications against three criteria: value for money, deliverability and strategic fit.
There is no published fixed match-funding percentage. However, councils are expected to maximise the use of their own funding. Applications must set out the total cost, the amount requested, spending milestones and timescales, together with the council’s own funding and resources being used alongside the grant.
Deliverability matters because funding is expected to be spent in the financial year in which it is awarded, with early spend and delivery prioritised. Additional weighting is given to proposals that help councils make Social and Affordable Homes Programme bids early and deliver additional affordable homes before mid-2029.
The strategic fit test asks whether the proposed work will genuinely increase the speed or scale of future programme bids and contribute to the wider objectives of the Social and Affordable Homes Programme, including increasing new affordable housing and maximising social rent.
The full assessment criteria are published by Homes England.
The fund is tied directly to the £39bn housing programme
The Council Housebuilding Support Fund sits within the Government’s wider Capacity to Build programme. Its purpose is not to finance homes by itself, but to help councils create and accelerate the projects that can then seek capital grant through the Social and Affordable Homes Programme.
That makes it the delivery-capacity counterpart to the much larger capital programme. Planning Geek covered the wider change in £39bn Affordable Housing Programme boosts council housebuilding, including the bigger role now envisaged for councils as builders, purchasers and development partners.
For councils with land but limited development capacity, or for public and private partners trying to turn a potential site into a grant-ready scheme, the new funding round is the point at which that policy becomes something they can actually bid for.
Applications close at 2pm on 2nd November
The 2026/27 window opened on 21st September 2026 and closes at 2pm on 2nd November 2026. Homes England says applications are to be made online. Councils should use its current Council Housebuilding Support Fund guidance as the official route for the round.
Applications are assessed as they are submitted. Homes England says councils will hear whether they have been successful from November 2026. Future bidding windows are expected in April 2027 and April 2028.
Successful councils will enter into a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government setting out activities, milestones, reporting and expenditure. A Statement of Grant Usage, certified by the council’s Section 151 Responsible Financial Officer, is also required.
The practical message is simple: this round is about paying for the people, evidence and early technical work that can turn housing opportunities into deliverable Social and Affordable Homes Programme bids. It is additional capacity funding, not a substitute for a council’s normal planning or housing budget.
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