According to new research into the housing crisis that the country is facing, England’s housing backlog has hit the four million home mark.
Heriot-Watt University conducted the research for the National Housing Federation and Crisis, and discovered that in order to meet the housing shortage, the country needs to build a staggering 340,000 homes a year until 2031.
The charities in question have warned that the figure is much higher than the current government target of 300,000 per year, with estimates not taking into account the true need of housing need – which is partially generated by high house prices.
The research also discovered that out of the new homes built each year, two-fifths of them must be affordable – however, this is almost twice the amount of previous estimates. In addition, the research claimed that 90,000 should be for social rent, 25,000 for shared ownership, and 30,000 for intermediate affordable rent.
“This groundbreaking new research shows the epic scale of the housing crisis in England,” said David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation.
“The shortfall of homes can’t be met overnight – instead, we need an urgent effort from the Government to meet this need, before it publishes its social housing green paper in the summer.
“The green paper will set out the Government’s approach to tackling a number of key issues, like stigma of social housing tenants. However, it is clear that many of these stem from a chronic underinvestment in affordable housing. Fixing this should be the Government’s top priority. As a first step, ministers should make the £2bn they promised for social rent available immediately.”
