Advertisement
CHRISTMAS SPECIAL: HALF PRICE Big Issue magazine subscription
SUBSCRIBE
Housing

Affordable housing rise in 2020 is ‘a drop in the ocean’

The 57,644 affordable homes completed last year are still far below the number needed to end England’s housing crisis despite repeated pleas for more social housing

Housebuilding Pixabay

The number of affordable homes built in England last year has been described as a “drop in the ocean” after showing a tiny one per cent rise.

A total of 57,644 affordable homes were completed between March 2019 and April 2020 according to figures from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government. But while this represents a small increase on the 57,485 built in 2018/19 and remains far below the levels needed to tackle England’s housing crisis.

It is a similar story for social rent homes with 6,566 homes completed in the same period, up four per cent on the 6,338 built in 2018/19.

That figure is still the third lowest on record while 162 local authorities did not complete any social rent housing at all in the last year, including in Bolton, Liverpool, Hull and Nottingham.

Social rent homes are the type of homes most in demand after successive governments neglected to build them while council house waiting lists have continued to rise. Last month the Local Government Association warned that waiting lists will double to two million people following the impact of the pandemic.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Housing charity Shelter has set the target of building three million social homes over the next two decades

Shelter chief executive Polly Neate said the increase “is a drop in the ocean. 

“It is unbelievable that in the middle of a nationwide housing emergency over half of the country saw no new social homes built at all.

“Every day our services pick up the phone to more and more people desperate for the security of a social home. With so many families facing homelessness already and the economic impact of the pandemic only just starting to be felt, more social housing is our only way out of this crisis.”

The Government has heralded the £11.5bn Affordable Homes Programme as their answer to the housing crisis, promising that it will deliver 180,000 new homes between 2021 and 2026.

A report accompanying the new statistics notes “as part of a house building cycle, delivery is normally lower in the first years of any new programme” but it remains to be seen if the programme delivers the social homes needed to prevent more people falling into homelessness or becoming trapped in temporary accommodation.

A government spokesperson said: “The number of new affordable homes built has increased for the fourth year in a row. We’re going to keep on delivering, increasing the supply of affordable housing.”

Big Issue vendors need your help now more than ever. More than 1,000 vendors are out of work because of the second lockdown in England. They can’t sell the magazine and they can’t rely on the income they need.

The Big Issue is helping our vendors with supermarket vouchers and gift payments but we need your help to do that.

Please buy this week’s magazine from the online shop or take out a subscription. This will make sure we can continue to support our vendors over this difficult period. You can even link your subscription to your local vendor with our new online map.

Thank you all so much for your ongoing support.

Advertisement

Buy a Big Issue Vendor Support Kit

This Christmas, give a Big Issue vendor the tools to keep themselves warm, dry, fed, earning and progressing.

Recommended for you

View all
Can Labour really build 1.5m new homes? Not without 'bold' and urgent planning reform, experts say
Photo of houses in the UK with a red bus in the foreground
Housebuilding

Can Labour really build 1.5m new homes? Not without 'bold' and urgent planning reform, experts say

Tower block tenants trapped in 'living nightmare' by bed bug infestations: 'I'm riddled with them'
bed bugs
Housing

Tower block tenants trapped in 'living nightmare' by bed bug infestations: 'I'm riddled with them'

Labour vow to end cladding crisis by 2029 leaves campaigners fearing 'living nightmare' will continue
Image of flats in London next to the Thames
Cladding crisis

Labour vow to end cladding crisis by 2029 leaves campaigners fearing 'living nightmare' will continue

Homelessness facts and statistics: The numbers you need to know in 2024
Homelessness

Homelessness facts and statistics: The numbers you need to know in 2024

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know
4.

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know