The government has a target of delivering 300,000 new homes per year by mid-2020s, however, only 3% of this target would be social homes built by local authorities.
Cross party MPs have launched an inquiry to investigate the effectiveness of the government’s strategy in providing social and affordable rented housing.
The government has a target of delivering 300,000 new homes per year by mid-2020s, however, only 3% of this target would be social homes built by local authorities.
And housing charity Shelter has warned that over three million new social home would need to be built over a 20-year period to address social housing need. Amounting to 150,000 new social homes per year,this is significantly higher than the government’s current plans.
CliveBetts MP, chair of the committee, who was launching the inquiry,said:“Over the last decade the construction of new social and affordable rented homes has stagnated.
“The number of new homes built in this sector has slowed to a trickle of a few thousand a year, while at the same time demand becomes greater and greater.
“The government has accepted that there needs to be much more new housing built each year, but it is possible that only 3% of its target of 300,000 new homes a year will be social homes built by local authorities.
“We have launched this new inquiry to understand how effective thegovernment’s current housing strategy will be in meeting demand for social housing in the long term.
“We will examine how far current funding levels will promote new building projects, and what more can be done to encourage local authorities and housing associations to increase provision.
“Social housing has been left to drift for too long and we must ensure that there are coherent long-term strategies to remedy this.”
The inquiry will also investigate the adequacy of funding levels, as well as programmes and incentives for key stakeholders, such as local authorities and housing associations, to stimulate delivery.
The committee will also look at the challenges facing different areas of the country and consider what lessons can be learnt from successful schemes in other countries.
