Shelter Social Housing Commission calls for 3m new homes over 20 years

In January last year Shelter launched a cross party commission into the future of social housing to address crucial issues highlighted by the Grenfell Tower fire. It is chaired by Reverend Mike Long of the Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell,  and its panel includes Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Ed Miliband MP, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, Lord Jim O’Neill and Grenfell tower survivor Edward Daffarn.

Unsurprisingly the solution to the housing crisis is to build more homes – 3.1 million new social homes over the next 20 years costed at £225bn.

The report produced by the commission concludes:

1.27 million homes are needed for those in the greatest need, including homeless people, people with a disability or long-term illness, or those living in very poor conditions.

1.17 million homes are needed for so called “trapped renters” including half of all young people who will never be able to afford to buy their own home.

690,000 extra homes are needed for older private renters who struggle to afford household costs after retirement.

Ed Miliband MP said: “The time for the government to act is now. We have never felt so divided as a nation, but building social homes is a priority for people right across our country. It is the way we can restore hope, build strong communities and fix the broken housing market so that we can meet the needs and aspirations of millions of people.”

Housing Minister James Brokenshire responded saying: “Providing quality and fair social housing is a priority for this government. We’ve asked tenants across the country for their views and the thousands of responses we’ve received will help us design the future of social housing.

“Our ambitious £9bn affordable homes programme will deliver 250,000 homes by 2022, including homes for social rent. A further £2bn of long term funding has already been committed beyond that as part of a ten year home building programme through to 2028.

“We’re also giving councils extra freedom to build the social homes their communities need and expect.” This is referring to the lifting of government restrictions on Local Authorities being able to borrow to build more homes.

The commission is also calling for:

• A powerful new Ofsted-style regulator to inspect homes
• Greater influence for tenants over what happens in their buildings
• The replacement of any sold-off social housing
• A commitment to mix social housing with private homes of indistinguishable design and without separate “poor door” entrances.

Click here to read the full report

The report obviously cannot help but insinuate that the Private Rental Sector is part of the problem saying:

“Unless we act now, we face a future in which a generation of young families will be trapped renting privately for their whole lives, where more and more people will grow old in private rentals, where billions more in welfare costs will be paid to private landlords – and hundreds of thousands more people will be forced into homelessness.”