The case for 70,000 social homes a year

There is a real housing crisis in this country.

Here are a few home truths:

• the average house price is now nearly 11 times average earnings
• housing supply has dropped even further behind housing demand
• over 1.6m households (which equates to almost 4m people) are on waiting lists for a social home
• house prices have risen by 156% since Labour came to power in 1997; during the same period incomes have gone up by 35%
• in two areas, Kensington & Chelsea and South Buckinghamshire, house prices are now more than 20 times local average incomes
• in only seven areas across England do the cheapest homes cost less than four times average local earnings (broadly what a mortgage lender will now lend): Barrow, Burnley, Hartlepool, Kingston-upon-Hull, Pendle, Stoke on Trent and Wansbeck
• mortgage repossessions rose 65% last year to 17,000 homes.

And the problem is set to get worse. Projections from Oxford Economics, commissioned by the National Housing Federation, predict that the average house price in England will rise by another 40% over the next five years, to break the £300,000 barrier.

In London the average house price will be nearly half a million pounds by 2012.

It’s a crisis that requires urgent action.

Gordon Brown’s government has made an encouraging start, pledging to deliver 3 million new homes by 2020.

It is vital that 70,000 of these are social rented or for shared ownership.

The Government has set out plans to deliver 70,000 social homes by 2011 – the vast majority of them to be built by housing associations.

We are working with government officials to ensure that there is adequate investment and sufficient planning reforms for these homes to be built.

And we are keeping up the pressure through our Home Truths reports – a region by region analysis of the real cost of housing in England.