ENGLAND — Shelter and a coalition of councils are calling for the cancellation or reduction of a £29 billion council housing debt. This debt was passed to local authorities in 2012 as part of a council house financing agreement.
More than 1.3 million households are on a waiting list for a social home in England. Last year, 12,198 social homes were built by councils, housing associations, or private developers. An average of 110 households wait for every new home, and clearing the list would take 119 years at the current rate.
Over the last 15 years, new social rent homes built in England decreased by 64 percent, while homeless households in temporary accommodation increased by 155 percent. In 20 percent of council areas, zero social homes were built in the last two years, and fewer than 10 were built in 30 percent of areas.
Elliott said, "If the government continued to deliver social homes at a snail's pace then none of us alive today will live to see the end of the housing emergency." She added, "Unless the scarcity of new social homes is addressed, communities will continue to be ripped apart, and children will be trapped in homelessness for generations to come." Elliott also said, "It is absurd councils cannot build the homes we need because of a housing debt that was passed on to them by the government, which it has made almost impossible to pay off." She stated, "The government can, and must, fulfil its promise of a council housing revolution. Removing barriers like the unfair housing debt would help councils to get shovels in the ground and build at scale again. Social rent homes are the only long-lasting solution to the housing emergency, and we need 90,000 a year for 10 years."
Muna said, "The figures expose a deluded government that blindly parrots horribly simplistic 'build, baby, build' targets as if this offers a universal cure - it doesn't." She added, "This is a systemic failure of successive governments and is now actively exploited by private landlords and housing associations who are converting traditional family homes into temporary accommodation to lease to councils at extortionate rents." Muna also said, "We need a fundamentally different approach to the provision of public housing. This demands massive, sustained investment in council housing."
"We need more social homes, which is why our Social Housing Bill tackles the decades of sell-off that has left over a million families on waiting lists with nowhere to turn," a spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said. The spokesperson added, "Our reforms will change the landscape for councils, give them confidence to once again build at scale, and is backed by the £39bn Social and Affordable Homes Programme."