Social housing backlog would take 119 years to clear

Shelter says more than 1.3 million households are waiting for a social housing, while just 12,198 were built across England last year by councils, housing associations and private developers.

The charity’s research says that means 110 households are waiting for every new social home delivered.

At the current rate of building, it would take 119 years to clear the waiting lists.

Sarah Elliott, the chief executive of Shelter, told the Guardian that if the government ‘continued to deliver social homes at a snail’s pace then none of us alive today will live to see the end of the housing emergency’.

Social house building collapses

She continued: “Unless the scarcity of new social homes is addressed, communities will continue to be ripped apart, and children will be trapped in homelessness for generations to come.

“While the number of new social homes has fallen off a cliff, homelessness has climbed to record levels, with families worrying their wait for a safe and secure home will exceed their lifetime.”

Shelter says the number of new social rent homes built annually has fallen by 64% over the past 15 years.

Over the same period, the number of homeless households in temporary accommodation has risen by 155%.

Councils aren’t building

In 20% of council areas in England, not one social home was built in the last two years.

In 30% of areas, fewer than 10 were built.

The charity points to 1967 as the peak of social home delivery, when 46% of all new homes built in England were for social rent and councils provided almost all of them, at 97%.

Suzanne Muna, the secretary and co-founder of the Social Housing Action Campaign, said the figures ‘expose a deluded government that blindly parrots horribly simplistic ‘build, baby, build’ targets as if this offers a universal cure – it doesn’t’.

She added: This is a systemic failure of successive governments and is now actively exploited by private landlords and housing associations who are converting traditional family homes into temporary accommodation to lease to councils at extortionate rents.

“We need a fundamentally different approach to the provision of public housing. This demands massive, sustained investment in council housing.”

Homes for social rent

The government has promised a ‘council housing revolution’ with 300,000 new social and affordable homes.

Of those, 60% are due to be designated for social rent.

That would mean 180,000 homes for social rent, around six times the number built in the decade leading up to 2024.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “We need more social homes, which is why our Social Housing Bill tackles the decades of sell-off that has left over a million families on waiting lists with nowhere to turn.

“Our reforms will change the landscape for councils, give them confidence to once again build at scale, and is backed by the £39bn Social and Affordable Homes Programme.”