Why we need a long-term plan for housing

Right now, there are 8.5 million people in England who can’t access the housing they need. This includes two million children in England living in overcrowded, unaffordable or unsuitable homes.

The total cost to our society caused by poor housing is estimated at £18.5bn per year. The total cost to the NHS is £1.4bn a year.

At Thirteen, we are committed to increasing the delivery of high-quality affordable homes and great places to live, and we welcome the Long-Term Plan for Housing campaign.

This week sees the launch of the next phase of the campaign #PlanForHousing, which states that England is in a housing emergency.

Across every community in the country, millions of people are being let down by a failing system. This crisis is affecting our health, our life chances and our financial security. But this is a crisis that can be solved.

With a long-term plan for housing, by 2035 the next government could:

• End child homelessness
• Halve overcrowding
• Provide the security of a social home for one million more people
• Ensure a warm and decent home for seven million more families
• Improve affordability
• Boost productivity by ensuring every region has the homes it needs to grow

We think that a plan for housing needs to start with a pragmatic and immediate focus on the following:

• Action to ramp up delivery of new social homes to the 90,000 each year we need to meet housing need.
• Changes to the planning system so it delivers more affordable housing. Targeted funding to improve and safeguard existing homes for building safety works, to refurbish and improve existing homes to extend their life, and for decarbonisation.
• Providing regulatory and policy certainty and stability, including a long-term approach to social housing rents. Ringfence funding to protect vital supported housing services – which prevent homelessness and take pressure off the NHS.
• As a housing association, our core purpose is to provide good quality, genuinely affordable homes for those who need them the most.

But we want to do more. Housing associations want to work in collaboration with the next government to end the housing crisis.

For more information visit the National Housing Federation - Long-term Plan for Housing