NHF response to Gove's speech on a long-term plan for housing

Rhys Moore, Executive Director of Public Impact at the National Housing Federation has responded to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove MP's speech on a long-term plan for housing. Rhys said:

We have been calling for a long term plan for housing and whilst this is a positive start, it is nowhere near the scale or ambition that is needed. We have a massive housing crisis on our hands with one in six children living in overcrowded homes and 4.2 million people in need of social housing. We welcome the commitments to planning interventions however this is relatively piece meal given the challenge we face.

There is also nothing in this announcement about investing in social housing which is sorely needed. We have a chronic shortage of social homes in this country, caused by decades of underinvestment by successive governments and this has exacerbated the rental crisis and increased house prices. Last year we only built around 6,500 social rented homes compared to the 90,000 a year that are needed. We need a strategic, nationally coordinated and properly funded long-term housing plan, focused on drastically increasing social housing across the country, which this is not.