Social housing waiting list hits peak

THE number of households on the social housing waiting list at Halton is at one of its highest levels in the last 20 years.

According to the Ministry Of Housing, Communities And Local Government (MHCLG) data, there were 3,092 households in search of somewhere to live.

The only two years when the number was higher were in 2013 amd 2014 when the number reached 3,428 and 3,099 respectively.

Last year’s figure was nearly twice the number seen in 2018, when 1,552 households were waiting.

The lowest level in the last 22 years was the year 2000 on 990 homes in the borough.

Housing charity Shelter warned that social housing is being ‘haemorrhaged’.

It said the Government figures showed there were 1.15m households waiting for a social home in England in

2019, up 4% on previous year.

Meanwhile there are 17,000 fewer social homes, it said, because 23,740 were sold or demolished.

Shelter said the 6,287 social rent homes brought to market was a ‘paltry’ sum, warning that more social rent homes have been lost through conversion to less affordable forms of renting.

It said that during the last decade there has been a net loss of almost 60,000 social homes through sales and demolitions not replaced.

Polly Neate, chief executive of the housing charity Shelter, said: “With over a million families in desperate need of social housing, it is absolutely outrageous that we are haemorrhaging thousands of secure social homes every year.

“These homes cannot afford to be lost.

“Homes are being sold off or demolished with no replacements built.

“All the while families are forced to live in overcrowded conditions, single parents are making the impossible choice of eating or paying the rent, and children are growing up homeless in grim B&Bs.

“Too many people are spending years waiting for a social home that isn’t coming.

“The Government has said now is the time invest in the future – they must ensure a new generation of social homes is part of that future.

She added: “With the budget just around the corner, housing cannot be ignored when the Government gets its chequebook out.”