Housing charities and other organisations who are lobbying to tackle housing problems are locked in a war of words with the Housing Minister, they say that the situation remains desperate and that we face the toughest conditions for years; while the minister defended the government’s record stating that he was determined to “pull out all the stops”.

The BBC reports:

The housing market will be plunged into “crisis”‘ without government action to address the “chronic under-supply of homes”, a body representing housing associations in England has warned.

The National Housing Federation (NHF) said the shortage was hitting home ownership rates and boosting rents.

The government says it has made more public land available for building.

It is also investing £4.5bn in new lower-cost homes over four years – but NHF said this represented a cut of 63%.

“More government investment in affordable housing would stimulate a wider, faster economic recovery and help fix our broken housing markets,” the NHF said.

Housing Minister Grant Shapps said his plans would “get Britain building again”.

“That’s why I’ve announced plans to release thousands of acres of public land for housebuilding.

“And despite the need to tackle the deficit we inherited, this government is putting £4.5bn towards an affordable homes programme which is set to exceed our original expectations and deliver up to 170,000 new homes over the next four years.”

‘Expensive and unregulated’

The rate of home ownership has declined in recent years due to the level of house prices, the need for larger deposits and stricter lending criteria set by banks, the National Housing Federation said.

Research it commissioned from Oxford Economics suggests that the proportion of home ownership in England, currently 67%, could decline further to 63.8% over the next 10 years.

But with rents rising, and more than 1.5 million people on waiting lists for social housing in England, it is also the lack of affordable alternatives to home ownership that is worrying to the NHF and others.

“Millions of people across the country remain desperate for an affordable place to live, with more and more forced into expensive and unregulated private rented accommodation,” said Campbell Robb, chief executive of housing charity Shelter.

To read the full article on the BBC website, view HERE.