Lack of Government ambition will see spiralling homelessness continue for years
Spiralling homelessness and housing shortages will continue for years to come after a “lack of ambition” in government to resolve the crisis, according to a damning report.
Under the Conservatives, the number of families living in temporary accommodation has rocketed and nearly 120,000 children in England do not have a permanent home.
MPs said they were “highly concerned” about the Government’s approach to tackling the problem and warned its “ambitions do not come even close to addressing it”.
As well as the human cost of the failures, local council budgets are also being put under strain by increasing accommodation bills, the Public Accounts Committee found.
It said: “We are highly concerned by this lack of urgency and ambition, most of all in view of the rising costs, both human and financial, of homelessness.”
Only 54% of the homes needed to keep up with population growth are estimated to have been built between 2011 and 2015, according to the PAC report.
The Government published a white paper in February that admitted the housing market in England was “broken” and had not been delivering enough houses to meet demand for many years.
But MPs said the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) still remained dependent on the big house builders to deliver its one million homes ambition.
It criticised the department for not being transparent enough about its housing objectives or the progress of the programmes that will help it meet them.
The timescale for delivering new homes was extended to six years but the change was not announced publicly and neither was a decision to revert back to five, the PAC said.
Housing figures only look backwards so parliament is unable to judge whether the Government is on course to meet its target, it added.
Around 189,000 new homes were built in 2015-16, 11,000 below the annual government target. Even if the 200,000 rate was met, a further 75,000 homes a year are actually needed to meet demand.
MPs found the number of families living in temporary accommodation rose from 50,000 in 2011/12 to 72,000 in 2015/16, when council spending on housing those affected hit £840 million – a rise in real terms of 46% in just five years.
The report said: “The number of homes built in England has lagged behind demand for housing for decades.
“The effects of this long-running shortfall in housing reveal themselves in the growing barriers people face in getting on the property ladder, or simply affording their rent.”
It comes after Jeremy Corbyn said a Labour government would tackle the housing crisis by building one million homes, with half to come from councils or housing associations.
The Labour leader also highlighted research showing Labour councils build nearly 1,000 more homes than their Tory counterparts on average.
A DCLG spokesman said: “The housing white paper published in February includes measures to deliver more homes. On top of this, 112,338 households have used the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme since its launch.
“The Autumn Statement also included an extra £1.4 billion for affordable house building, taking the total to over £7 billion to deliver more than 200,000 homes. And £550 million has already been allocated to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping, with a focus on prevention.”
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