Why we need more social housing

This content applies to England only.

We need to build more homes to address the current housing shortage and, above all, ensure that there is enough affordable housing to meet current need.

Problems caused by the social housing shortage

Social rented homes play a key role in providing affordable housing. The current shortage of social housing creates many problems:

• Applicants have to spend a long time on a waiting list before they are given a permanent home.
• Many homeless and vulnerable households are forced to live in insecure temporary accommodation for years while they wait for a decent, permanent home.
• The shortage of social housing also means that only the most vulnerable groups tend to get allocated social housing, concentrating large numbers of people with severe economic, social and health problems in the same area. This tends to increase the likelihood of community breakdown.

Getting more social rented homes built

Shelter believes it is vital that the current shortage of social housing is addressed, and we have campaigned for years for an increase in the national rate of social house building.

We were very pleased when, in the Pre-Budget Review of 2007, the Chancellor announced plans to build 45,000 social rented homes a year by 2011, and then a further increase to 50,000 a year by the end of the next spending review period in 2014.

However, although these figures are a very encouraging signal of political commitment, the new homes promised will be barely enough to meet current demand.

Indeed, as demand for social rented housing is increasing each year, Shelter does not believe the new social house building targets will solve all the shortages in the sector. We are particularly keen to ensure that enough family-sized homes are built, as building in recent years has been too heavily concentrated on one and two bed units. We also want to make sure that the new units are well designed, environmentally sustainable, and accompanied by facilities that will create thriving communities.

Some new social rented housing gets built as the result of planning agreements between local councils and private developers, where permission to build is granted on the agreement that a certain percentage of the new homes will be affordable, including social housing for rent.

However, in many cases, this agreement is not enforced and the number of social homes that are actually delivered are fewer than originally agreed. Shelter will be campaigning to ensure this does not happen in future.