The Government has been urged to tackle the country’s rapidly worsening housing crisis as new research reveals there is a century-long wait for a family-sized social home in parts of England.
New analysis by the National Housing Federation (NHF), and the charities Crisis and Shelter, found the number of families on waiting lists in England has increased by 37% since 2015.
In thirty-two local authorities the wait for social housing is now over 18 years, with waiting lists in Westminster, Enfield and Merton exceeding a hundred years.
Outside of London, Mansfield and Slough have the longest waits at 75.5 and 74.3 years respectively.
Kate Henderson, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, said the social housing sector had ‘faced years of withdrawal of vital funding.’
‘The upcoming Spending Review is the opportunity for the government to rebuild the capacity of the social housing sector and commit the investment and the change that is needed, creating a better future for our children and ending homelessness for good,’ she added.
A Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said the findings highlighted ‘the scale and devastating impact of the social housing crisis we’ve inherited.’
‘We’re taking urgent action to fix this through our Plan for Change, injecting £2bn to help deliver the biggest boost in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation, investing in homelessness services, and bringing forward overdue reforms to the Right to Buy scheme that will protect the stock of existing social housing.’
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