A new state of the region report from the Northern Housing Consortium has revealed the urgent need for more social housing in the North West.
It found that there are more than 207,000 households on social housing waiting lists in the region. In the North West 8,040 households are living in temporary accommodation including 10,050 children.
The report states that 600,000 social rent homes in the North have been sold though Right to Buy and only 1 in 7 have been replaced. This contributes to a lack of social housing, increasing homelessness and people in the lowest income group being forced to rent in the private sector where rents are higher and quality is lower.
More than 26% of households renting privately in the North West fall into the lowest income bracket and 37% of children in the North West live in households that are pushed into poverty after housing costs.
The government has committed to the “biggest growth in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation” with an ambitious target of building 1.5 million homes – 370,000 homes per year.
This has subsequently seen housebuilding targets increase by 52 per cent in the North. However, the previous government’s targets were exceeded in the North, so to hit the new targets the delivery of new homes in the North needs to increase by 27 per cent.
The report revealed that as well as a need for more social housing, there is the twin challenge of a need to regenerate our communities with around 27 per cent of private rented homes in the North West not meeting current Decent Homes standards.
Rates of demolition in the North have dropped by over 24% since 2019/20 suggesting the worst quality homes are not being replaced.
Tracy Harrison, chief executive of the Northern Housing Consortium said: “Housing waiting lists are increasing, the number of people forced into expensive and unsuitable temporary accommodation is skyrocketing. 1.8m people, 1 in 4 North West residents, are pushed into poverty after housing costs, demonstrating the urgent need for more social housing.
“Housing associations and councils are ready to deliver the homes their communities need and to contribute to government housebuilding targets and economic growth, but to do this they need the right resources.
“The government recently announced a £2 billion top up of the Affordable Homes Programme, something we’d been campaigning for to enable our members to continue building. However, to make a real change, longer term funding is needed to build more homes and improve existing homes and places. Lower land values make building in the North more affordable. We are leading the way with devolution, which means in many areas there is already the infrastructure and collaboration in place to better target funding.
“It is vital that action is taken urgently to make sure that everyone in the North has access to a good quality, safe home. I’m optimistic that with the right support from government, the social housing sector in the North can make a real difference.”
The NHC is calling on the government to launch a new ten-year affordable homes programme announced at the Spending Review and support a dedicated funding stream of at least 1.37 billion over five years to support housing-led neighbourhood regeneration in the North.
It also asks the government to unlock up to 320,000 homes on brownfield land in the North through a ten-year £4.2 billion programme to remediate all the North’s brownfield land.
Image: (From left): Faye Gordon, executive director of Growth and Performance at believe housing; John Johnson, chief executive of Bernicia Homes; Liz Twist MP for Blaydon and Consett; Lord Best OBE DL; Tracy Harrison, chief executive of Northern Housing Consortium; Emma Payne, director, Social Housing at Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Patrick Murray, executive director of Policy and Public Affairs at Northern Housing Consortium.
