Government's Affordable Homes Programme likely to be delayed, says National Audit Office

The report found that more than half of the homes planned under the scheme are not due to be delivered until 2015, the final year of the scheme. So any slippage in the programme of delivery would cause delays to the whole scheme, it said.

The launch of the Programme by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) was a success, said the NAO. "Providers committed themselves to building some 80,000 homes for the £1.8bn of Government investment, compared to the initial target of 56,000," it said.

But it warned that "key risks remain. Nearly a fifth of contracts with housing providers remain to be signed; more than half of the planned homes are not currently due to be delivered until the final year of the Programme; and some providers are concerned that they may not be able to charge rents at the levels they originally agreed with the Programme," the report said.

"The Affordable Homes Programme has made a good start, with providers committing themselves to building some 24,000 more homes than originally expected," said Amyas Morse, head of the NAO. "There are key risks, however, including the fact that more than half of the homes are planned for the final year, with no room for slippage. The final judgment on the success of the Programme will depend on how well these risks can be managed between now and 2015."

In response to the report by the NAO, the HCA has published an update on the Programme, which shows that 90% of the providers that signed up to the programme have now signed contracts, according to an Inside Housing report.