The lack of affordable housing being created, combined with an on-going cost of living crisis, is leaving more and more people priced out of the housing market.
And now new analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation [JRF] – an independent charity that funds research into social policy – suggests that the delivery of affordable housing is currently 30,000 per year less than is required.
The deficit caused by the undersupply has already reached 180,000 and will lead to a see shortfall of more around 335,000 homes by the end of Parliament in 2022 if current trends continue.
In other words, 600 more affordable homes are required each week – a rate higher than the 100 low-cost rented homes-a-week pledged by the government. With council capacity only covering around an additional 15,000 properties, housing associations will be expected to pick up the slack to manage a further additional 15,000 every year.
JRF are calling on the government to focus on the supply of low-cost rented homes in its forthcoming Social Housing Green Paper. It is hoped that this will reduce upward pressure on rent prices, quell the rising number of people living in poverty and save the government billions on the Housing Benefit bill.
Private rents are unaffordable for low earners in over half (53 per cent) of England with 171 out of 323 local authorities across the country. The analysis also claims that even the cheapest rents are unaffordable for residents in the bottom 25 per cent of local earnings with rent costing more than a third of wages.
