Some councils could take century to clear waiting list for family-sized social homes, warns NHF

Local authorities with the most severe social housing shortages could take over a hundred years to clear waiting lists for family-sized social  homes, according to the National Housing Federation (NHF).

The new analysis, released yesterday, showed Westminster, Enfield, Merton, Wandsworth and Camden as having the most dire prospects for social housing in London and overall, theoretically taking between 82 and 107 years to clear waiting lists.

Outside of London, Mansfield, Slough, Solihull, Bolton and Broxbourne face between 23 and 75.5 years to accommodate all the families in need of homes with three or more bedrooms.

According to the research, published by the NHF alongside homelessness charities Crisis and Shelter, the number of families on waiting lists in England has increased by 37% since 2015. In 32 local authorities, it would take more than 18 years to get through the register.

With increasingly high demand for affordable housing, councils have introduced stricter criteria to keep waiting lists down, such as local connection requirements.

This indicates that the true number of households in need of social housing is “likely to be much higher than the 1.33 million recorded by councils,” warned the report.

It also claimed that the government’s annual £13.5bn spend on  temporary accommodation (TA) and housing benefit schemes could instead deliver 73,000 new social rented homes.

TA costs have increased by 238% since 2010, while an increase in housing benefit is partly due to low-income families being forced to rent in the private sector.

Analysis by Shelter showed that social rents are 69% more affordable than private rents, with social tenants in England paying an average of £947 less per month in rent than private residents.

Meanwhile, research published by the NHF and Shelter in February 2024 estimated that 90,000 social homes would need to be built each year to meet demand - more than ten times the current rate.

Kate Henderson, chief executive of the NHF, said: “The social housing sector has faced years of withdrawal of vital funding. The upcoming Spending Review is the opportunity for the government to rebuild the capacity of the social housing sector and commit the investment and the change that is needed, creating a better future for our children and ending homelessness for good.

“This means delivering coordinated homelessness and long-term housing strategies which include a package of measures to support the social housing sector to recover and crucially a big boost in funding to build new social homes.”

The scarcity of suitable affordable housing leaves many families living in overcrowded conditions, in poverty in unaffordable and insecure private accommodation or homeless.

The latest government figures reported a record 164,040 homeless children living in TA between July and September 2024 , double the 2012 figure.