270,000 in region wait for housing

Sep 10 2008 by Joanne Douglas, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

DEMAND for social housing is now outstripping the supply as waiting lists for council houses grow.

More than 7,600 Kirklees households are waiting for social housing, figures show.

Throughout Yorkshire waiting lists increased by 9% last year and 66% in the last five years, with more than 270,000 households currently on the waiting list.

The region has the most acute housing need and supply problems of any English region, affecting more than half-a-million people.

One in eight households is on a social housing waiting list and only around a fifth of the social homes needed are being built.

Julie Gamble, of the National Housing Federation Yorkshire, which conducted the research, said: “Yorkshire and Humberside faces the most severe housing crisis in the country.

“We have the highest proportion of households on waiting lists, house prices have risen much faster than the national average and we are building far too few social homes.

“With over half a million people in the region currently on a social housing waiting list, many may think that the current drop in house prices would help.

“But with borrowing conditions much stricter, housing transactions in the region have plummeted and more people are turning to housing associations for help.”

The report says that developers are experiencing the knock-on impact of being unable to sell homes and are scaling back on new developments.

In turn that will lead to social housing providers being asked to pick up the pieces as unemployment rises.

It comes as property sales are at their lowest for 30 years.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said sales were at their lowest level since 1978, with some estate agents selling just one house a week.

The Nationwide Building Society said it expected house prices to fall by 25% from their peak 11 months ago.

The average house price in Kirklees is currently £153,477. In neighbouring Calderdale it is £148,807.