Urgent action needed to address housing crisis in the North

A new state of the region report from the Northern Housing Consortium has been launched in parliament today.

It revealed the urgent need for more social housing in the North. It found that there are nearly 500,000 households on social housing waiting lists in the North – a 13 per cent increase on the previous year.  The number of households forced to live in temporary accommodation is also rising fast with a yearly increase of around 16%, with over 14,000 children in the region living in temporary accommodation.

600,000 social rent homes in the North have been sold though Right to Buy and only 1 in 7 have been replaced. This contributes to a lack of social housing, increasing homelessness and people in the lowest income group being forced to rent in the private sector where rents are higher and quality is lower. A quarter of people renting privately in the North fall into the lowest income bracket and 1 in 3 children in the North live in households that are pushed into poverty after housing costs.

The Government has committed to the “biggest growth in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation” with an ambitious target of building 1.5 million homes – 370,000 homes per year. This has subsequently seen housebuilding targets increase by 52 per cent in the North. However, the previous Government’s targets were exceeded in the North, so to hit the new targets the delivery of new homes in the North needs to increase by 27 per cent.

The report revealed that as well as a need for more social housing, there is the twin challenge of a need to regenerate our communities with around 27 per cent of private rented homes in the North not meeting current Decent Homes standards. Rates of demolition in the North have dropped by around a quarter since 2019/20 suggesting the worst quality homes are not being replaced.

Tracy Harrison, Chief Executive, Northern Housing Consortium said: “Housing waiting lists are increasing and the number of people forced into expensive and unsuitable temporary accommodation is skyrocketing. 3.6m people in the North are pushed into poverty after housing costs, demonstrating the urgent need for more social housing.

“Housing associations and councils are ready to deliver the homes their communities need and to contribute to Government housebuilding targets and economic growth, but to do this they need the right resources. The Government recently announced a £2 billion top up of the Affordable Homes Programme, something we’d been campaigning for to enable our members to continue building. However, to make a real change, longer term funding is needed to build more homes and improve existing homes and places. Lower land values make building in the North more affordable. We are leading the way with devolution, which means in many areas there is already the infrastructure and collaboration in place to better target funding.

“It is vital that action is taken urgently to make sure that everyone in the North has access to a good quality, safe home. I’m optimistic that with the right support from Government, the social housing sector in the North can make a real difference.”

To make sure everyone in the North has a good quality safe place to call home, the NHC is calling on the Government to:

• Launch a new ten-year affordable homes programme announced at the Spending Review:
  • With flexibility to support housing led regeneration schemes, so outdated homes that are not fit for purpose can be replaced by new homes that meet the needs of communities.
  • Greater devolution of funding to make sure it is targeted effectively to meet local needs.
  • Targeted support for local authorities to ensure they are set up to build new council homes.
• A dedicated funding stream of at least 1.37 billion over 5 years to support housing-led neighbourhood regeneration in the North.
  • This would run alongside the recently announced Plan for Neighbourhoods, which supports social regeneration in specific towns.
• Unlock up to 320,000 homes on brownfield land in the North through a ten-year £4.2 billion programme to remediate all the North’s brownfield land. 
• Make quality a priority:
  • Confirmation of the new Decent Homes Standard and the right financial support to make sure existing homes meet the new standard.
  • Continued investment in energy efficiency, which lowers bills for tenants and improves quality of homes. Previous NHC research found £500 million of retrofit funding per year up to 2030 is needed for the North to upgrade all social homes to EPC band C, and from 2030 to £1 billion per year is needed to accelerate the decarbonisation of the North’s homes.
  • Devolved combined funding for housing quality and energy efficiency so social housing providers can work more efficiently, and the funding is targeted where it’s needed most.
  • Support for local authorities to drive improvements in the private rented sector.
• Make sure that housing associations and local authorities have the financial stability needed to invest in new homes.
  • A ten-year rent settlement at CPI plus one, with the option of rent convergence where needed.

The Northern Housing Monitor, the NHC’s annual state of the region report is produced by Arc4 and supported by believe housing, Bernicia and Yorkshire Housing. It covers housing and poverty, housing supply, housing quality and regeneration, and net zero and fuel poverty. It is available on the NHC website, alongside the Northern Housing data bank or you can read it in full by clicking here.