Waiting lists for a family sized social home exceed 100 years in some councils, according to grim research published today.
The National Housing Federation (NHF) said in 32 councils across England the wait for a social home with three or more bedrooms is now longer than 18 years – an entire childhood.
Three areas – Westminster, Enfield, Merton – in London have waiting lists passing 100 years, the analysis claims. Outside London, Mansfield and Slough have a wait of over 70 years while Solihull and Bolton wait times exceed 27 years, it adds.
Researchers said this is the time it would take families to clear the whole list – rather than average waiting times. They said there has also been a staggering increase of over 36% in England of families waiting for a social home with three or more beds from 2014-15 to 2023-24. This is compared to a 5.9% increase in the overall number of over 1.3million on waiting lists.
The figures – exposing the chronic shortage of social homes – are based on an analysis by the NHF and leading housing and homeless charities Shelter and Crisis. They are urging the government to boost social housing to reduce the record numbers of kids living in temporary accommodation and to combat the housing emergency.
Kate Henderson, Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation, said “The fact that families in so many parts of the country face waiting lists for an affordable home longer than their children’s entire childhood is a national scandal.” She said the Chancellor Rachel Reeves must use June’s spending review to commit to investment to rebuild the social housing sector.
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Matt Downie, Chief Executive of Crisis, said: “The consequences of failing to build anywhere near enough social homes are tens of thousands of children growing up homeless, restricted life chances and people trapped in poverty across generations. It’s ludicrous that in some areas of the country the wait for a social home is more than average life expectancy.”
Mairi MacRae, Director of Policy and Campaigns at Shelter, added: “Decades of failure to build genuinely affordable social homes has left our housing system in tatters and trapped families in a relentless cycle of insecurity and homelessness.” She added: “The June Spending Review is the government’s chance to right this wrong.”
Last month Deputy PM Angela Rayner and the Chancellor announced 18,000 new social and affordable homes will be built with a £2billion injection. It was billed as the “biggest boost in social and affordable house building in a generation”. But experts have argued 90,000 new social homes are needed each year to clear the backlog in waiting lists.
A Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesman said: “The findings of this report highlight 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 £2 billion 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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