One in 30 London children already lives in temporary accommodation, and this will only increase if we're not building the new homes for these families.
The reasons for the fall include rising construction costs, increased building safety costs (esp in London), and insufficient grant rates. Housing associations are also prioritising their own funds onto their existing stock.
Housing associations started just 150 new homes in London in Q2 2024, compared with 1,890 starts in Q2 2023 - This is a complete collapse in building social housing at a time when it's never been more badly needed. Government urgently needs to step in to help the sector.
It's also impractical from a financial perspective to build only social housing - the Government would need to put massive subsidy in (£100-£300k per home), which they clearly aren't going to do. So a lot of social housing is cross-subsidised via the building of market housing.
Social housing is the most direct way to help people in most acute need. But most of the population live in market housing - and we do need more of that too. (If we don't build enough market housing, that just pushes more people on the margins of affordability onto waiting lists for social housing)
Want to understand why it costs so much to build a house? Our new report breaks it down to show where all the costs come from - useful reading for anyone interested in the challenges in building more homes.
How much does it cost to build a house? Our new report sets this out clearly to help people outside the housing sector understand costs better. A few key points housingforum.org.uk/reports/key-...
How has the thing we need most become unaffordable? A new report by The Housing Forum answers the all-important question: How much does it cost to build a house? The Housing Forum, is a cross-sector b...
Yes, the inclusion of children (who never occupy a home of their own) is part of the issue. Plus more older people who chose to live alone - we can't go evicting them and making them share their homes.
My best guess is that she's talking largely to the over 60s, who will have reared their own children when maternity pay was pretty much nonexistent so may be amenable to thinking "why can't the snowflakes support their own families just like we did?"
