Housing crisis getting worse

New figures compiled by the National Housing Federation and Crisis, the national charity for the homeless, show that the housing crisis is worse than previously thought.

The government is trying to address the lack of homes in the UK by pushing for the delivery of more than one million homes over the next few years. However, the new research conducted by Heriot-Watt University suggests that current building targets are well off base, leading a score of housing and homelessness charities to call on the Government to tackle the true extent of the housing shortage.

The groundbreaking research shows that England’s total housing need backlog has reached four million homes. To both meet this backlog and provide for future demand, the country needs to build 340,000 homes per year until 2031. This is significantly higher than the Government’s target of 300,000 homes annually.

However the research is keen to point out that simply building 340,000 homes a year is not the answer, they will need to be the right type of homes. The research shows that 145,000 of these new homes must be affordable homes, compared to previous estimates of the annual affordable housing need of around 78,000. This means that around two-fifths of all new homes built every year must be affordable homes – in 2016/17, only around 23% of the total built were affordable homes.

Addressing the shortage means providing a homes for everyone, including homeless people, private tenants spending huge amounts on rent, children unable to leave the family home, and even couples delaying having children because they are stuck in unsuitable housing.

The new research also goes further than previous studies, breaking down exactly what type of affordable homes are needed:

• 90,000 should be for social rent
• 30,000 should be for intermediate affordable rent
• 25,000 should be for shared ownership

The research comes ahead of the publication of the Government’s social housing green paper, expected in the summer.

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