More affordable homes built in Wigan last year – as numbers rise across England
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
More than 63,000 affordable homes were delivered across the country as of March 2023 – the highest number since 2014-15.
But experts said this is still inadequate and a more ambitious house building agenda is needed.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdDepartment for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities figures show 498 affordable homes were completed in Wigan in 2022-23 – up from 351 during the same period the year before.


The figures include social and affordable rental properties, affordable home ownership, shared ownership and first homes. The number of social rent homes, however, has seen a fall in the last decade, with affordable rent now the most common housing for new supply.
Social rental properties are for low-income families and typically cost about 50 per cent of market rents, while affordable housing is provided to low-income earners and can be charged up to 80 per cent of market rents.
Luke Murphy, associate director at think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research, said: “While it’s positive to see the overall number of affordable homes being built rise, it is still far short of adequate and the number of genuinely affordable homes built – those for social rent – remain at historically low levels.”
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdIn Wigan, 296 affordable rent homes and 160 shared ownership dwellings were delivered.
Mr Murphy added: “The housing crisis in England is having significant impacts on people across the country, with many struggling with high rents, lack of security and stability, and poor quality accommodation.
“We need a far more ambitious house building agenda, which must include planning reform and a significant increase in public investment in genuinely affordable housing.”
Across the country, there were also 71,000 affordable dwellings started on site in 2022-23, with 275 of those in Wigan.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdPolly Neate, chief executive of Shelter said: “The Government’s statistics show that despite the escalating housing emergency, not enough has changed and we are still miles away from building the number of social homes we need.
“Every day in our frontline services we see the impact of the decades of failure to build social homes in this country.”