Waiting lists for housing in England increase

The number of families waiting to receive social housing continues to increase. The latest stats from Home Group and other organisations show that between 1.7 to 2 million people in England are waiting for some form of government housing. There are also tens of thousands of other individuals that are homeless and are not even counted as part of that number.

This is a number that continues to increase each year, and a big driver in this increase is the government cutting social housing funds by over 60 per cent since 2010. Other factors include the lack of turnover and benefit caps that are in place. Experts are worried that the problem may get worse before it gets better.

With the upcoming election, this figure is putting an increasing amount of pressure on the Conservative government. Some organisations are even trying to ensure the vulnerable who are impacted by this problem get out and vote during it. In fact, over one million people that are waiting are local to the top 100 marginal constituencies. If only 70,000 or so of them vote, they can make a difference.

Concerns raised by experts

The lack of affordable housing can lead to various problems for society. There is data that show that it can cause poor health due to stress and other factors. Many people that are homeless, or struggle to find housing in the private or social market also have lower educational attainment and therefore incomes. So the cycle continues to repeat and children of these families will also tend to struggle in the future.

There are many causes of this crisis. In addition to the rollbacks to social housing, there have also been tens of thousands of council homes sold to tenants. This does benefit some families, but it has greatly reduced the availability of housing in England as those units that were sold were not replaced. Only about 10 per cent of the homes sold have been replaced by local councils.

Another cause of the waiting lists is the cap that is used for the housing benefit payments that mostly impacts the private market. This prevents many families from affording the rent for some of the richest areas of the UK, and they then go on a waiting list for social housing in a different town.

The cap then also leads to limited mobility as people can’t explore different opportunities for jobs. Or they look for accommodations in other parts of England where maybe there are not job openings. Many of these individuals then go on waiting lists for social housing in other parts of the country, and are now part of the waiting list.

The turnover is social housing is also very low. Some parts of the UK, such as Aberdeenshire, even have a waiting list that goes as long as 15 years. The council claims this is due to lack of turnover as well as new builder development.

So with over one million people waiting, the solutions are not easy. But Home Group and others want the government to address this crisis.