A BARNSLEY MP has called for action on affordable housing after new analysis shows at the current rate of building it will take 130 years to house all 1.1m people on council housing waiting lists.
Analysis undertaken by the Labour Party shows that over the last three years for which there are figures, an average of 2,123 council homes have been build, whilst 6,374 homes for social rent have been built. That’s a total average of 8,497 affordable homes being built a year, yet there are 1,114,477 households on local authorities’ waiting lists.
This figure divided by 8,497 equates to 131 years to house everyone on council waiting lists at the current rate of building.
And in Barnsley, with nearly 4,000 households on the council housing waiting list, local MP Stephanie Peacock has called on the government to address the housing shortage when Parliament returns following its summer recess.
The MP said: “After the best part of a decade of austerity imposed on our town and local authority, the Conservative government urgently needs to address the affordable housing crisis it has created.
“As demand rises, it is unacceptable that communities like ours are losing affordable homes when they have never been so badly needed.
“The Tories need to get to grips with this housing crisis, and Labour has a ready-made plan: stop the conversion of social homes into more expensive housing, build a million low-cost homes, and develop the infrastructure like new schools and roads needed to support the changes.”
