Shelter UK feels the housing market is in a critical state due to the ongoing recession in the UK. With the collapse in lending and house prices leading to severe drops in private housing supply, this will pose a serious challenge for the housebuilding industry.
Shelter UK believe the Government must start to invest heavily in a major initiative of social house building to create jobs, deliver homes and help kick start the economy. Based on National Housing Federation projections, an additional investment of £6.35 billion over the next two years would build 100,000 new social rented homes; which is 20,000 on top of the original Government target.
With the current recession threatening to undermine the Government’s commitment to build more affordable homes, the opportunity exists to provide additional social housing and stem the loss of any further construction jobs.
With thousands of people being laid off, redundancies in the construction industry are up 380% – the biggest increases in any sector in the past year.
To help make a difference email your local MP and ask them to call on the Government to invest significant additional money in new social rented homes in the next Budget on 22 April 2009.
