“1,100 families chasing 138 homes”, says MP

A TOTAL of 1,100 families applied 138 new, two-bed room properties available to rent in South Warrington during 2016-17 – clear proof of inadequate provision of social housing.
That’s the view of Warrington South MP Faisal Rashid in an outspoken criticism of the Department for Housing Communities and Local Government in parliament.
Despite rising levels of demand, the Government has built more than 30,000 fewer social-rented homes each year since 2010, he claimed.
Central government funding for building new homes for social rent had also reduced, replaced in part by funding for construction of homes for affordable rent, with rents up to 80 per cent of market rates.
Over the last nine years private rents had soared, and the Government had failed to step in to provide better rights for private renters.
Home-ownership was also down sharply for young people, with almost 900,000 fewer young homeowners since 2010.
Mr Rashid said: “We have a huge shortage of affordable homes with over a million people on council house waiting lists across England.
“As demand vastly outstrips supply and the government fails to take action on land-banking, councils are pressured to build on Green Belt sites.
“These are unsustainable levels of demand. The Government must do more to ensure that this housing crisis is properly addressed.
“I have always supported efforts at the local council level to attach 30 per cent of affordable housing to all new planning applications. I also support vastly increasing levels of social housing, but this is up to central government – they need to provide adequate funding to housing associations to build the social housing we so desperately need in my constituency. By any reasonable metric, the government’s record on this has been an abject failure.
“I challenged Housing Minister Kit Malthouse on this dismal record. His response was vague and unsatisfactory – typical of the complacency and incompetence which has characterised housing policy under this Tory Government.