Responding to the National Housing Federation’s ‘state of the nation’ report on the housing crisis, which reveals that more than 8 million people in England are living in an unaffordable, insecure or unsuitable home, the Local Government Association’s housing spokesman, Cllr David Renard, said:
“The findings of this report reinforces how critical it is for the Government to use the Queen’s Speech to give councils the powers and funding they need to get building the social housing the country desperately needs.
“The last time the country built more than 300,000 homes a year was 1977/78, when councils built 44 per cent of them. Latest figures show councils built just over 2,500 homes last year – the highest level since 1992 – but need to be able to do so much more.
“By scrapping the housing borrowing cap, the Government showed it has heard our argument that councils must be part of the solution to our chronic housing shortage.
“It should now go further and devolve Right to Buy so that councils retain 100 per cent of their receipts to reinvest in building new homes accompanied with the right infrastructure, and can set discounts locally.”