“Our green paper offers a landmark opportunity for major reform to improve fairness, quality and safety to residents living in social housing across the country,” said Brokenshire.
“Regardless of whether you own your home or rent in the social sector, residents deserve security, dignity and the opportunities to build a better life.
“With four million households living in social housing and this projected to rise annually, it’s crucial that we tackle the issues facing both residents and landlords in social housing.
Continue reading for free
Registration is free and takes less than 30 seconds.
Our supporters make Big Issue’s work possible. Join us to see the impact we’re having together and discover more ways to help people facing poverty access income, opportunity and support.
But one thing that the green paper does not pledge is further funding to build the affordable homes that experts unanimously agree that the sector needs.
The government has pledged to build 300,000 homes every year by the mid-2020s, but there was little about how those plans would become reality, according to Shelter chief executive Polly Neate.
“Today’s green paper is full of warm words, but doesn’t commit a single extra penny towards building the social homes needed by the 1.2 million people on the waiting list,” she said.
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
The Local Government Association’s housing spokesperson Cllr Judith Blake agreed that the announcement fails to address the decline of available affordable housing that has led to the housing crisis.
“This green paper is a step towards delivering more social homes but it is only a small step, compared with the huge and immediate need for more genuinely affordable homes,” said Cllr Blake.
“The government must go beyond the limited measures announced so far, scrap the housing borrowing cap, and enable all councils, across the country, to borrow to build once more. This would trigger the renaissance in council house-building which will help people to access genuinely affordable housing.”
Campbell Robb, chief executive of the independent Joseph Rowntree Foundation, warned that the green paper is a missed opportunity to tackle the housing crisis and left millions around England out of poverty. “Families up and down the country are being trapped in poverty because of high housing costs,” he said. “The social housing green paper was an opportunity to right this wrong and deliver a plan that would build a new generation of social housing, that would loosen the grip of poverty on families and help people to build a secure future.
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
“Against a back drop of rising foodbank use, families on low incomes will continue to face impossible choices about whether to pay the rent or put food on the table. We urge the government to invest in 80,000 genuinely affordable homes a year at the next Spending Review to put things right.”
Images: Alex Liivet/Flickr
