BBC reports today of a spike in the number of people waiting to access affordable housing contain make for grim reading.
According to reports, more than 11,000 people joined council housing waiting lists in England between July to September last year. This is a rise of 12% on the previous quarter. The report cites economic slowdown, the effect of the ‘right to buy’ policy on supply and a decline in housebuilding numbers as causes.
I think there is another under-acknowledged factor that transcends politics: social housing is not a top priority in this country.
You only have to look at the lack of media coverage of the issue today to realise this. A Google News search of ‘housing waiting lists’ only returned detailed coverage of this on the BBC. It is not on the Local Government Association‘s website, who I assumed were the source of the story. This is mystifying.
Why affordable housing matters
A decent home (whether bought, part-owned or rented) meets a fundamental human need, and yet there are millions of people who can’t access this.
Such a crisis – which the Government admits it is – should be front page news every other day. This would force the issue to the top of the policy agenda. It arguably maters more than tuition fees, bankers’ bonuses and certainly Jordan’s marriage/divorce combined.
It may be the complexity of the issue that stops the media covering it more regularly. Or, worse, they think it doesn’t interest their readers in the way house price stories do. In some way though, unless you are landed gentry or a multi-millionnaire (mere millionaires may struggle in some areas), this issue affects every area of the country.
Admittedly, this story emerged on a Saturday; maybe this is a premature rant and the rest of the media will pick up the thread next week. I hope they do, as the housing crisis should be one of the campaigning issues of the year.
You can find government statistics on social housing provision broken down by local authority area here.