YOUR LETTERS: My fears for social housing

More than a quarter of a million people in England woke up homeless this morning. Some will have slept rough, some are in grim B&Bs, and others are in old office buildings that have been converted into human warehouses.

This is an emergency. It’s eating away at our society one family at a time. What should the priority housing policy be?

Certainly not a “big new idea” that’s simply a revamp of David Cameron’s failed Starter Homes initiative. The First Homes scheme is a comfort blanket only at a time when we desperately need properly affordable housing.

Policymakers are looking to give a lucky few a 30% discount on what are still going to be incredibly expensive homes. And let’s be clear about who the lucky few are. It is not those facing a monthly struggle to afford their rent.

Analysis shows that in 96% of the country someone on an average salary could not afford to buy one of these new-build homes, even with 30% lopped off the market price, and certainly not the key workers that the government talks about, unless they are at manager level.

Nearly two-thirds of private renters have no savings whatsoever: there’s no way they can afford a deposit.

For those earning above the average, or with a helpful inheritance – people already on the cusp of homeownership, in other words – this may get them over the line.

There is nothing wrong with that, but it becomes a massive problem if it comes at the expense of the social homes that more than a million households are desperately waiting for.

And that’s the real problem with this idea. The government is not proposing to introduce First Homes as an additional form of housing supply.

Instead, it plans to use the existing Section 106 system, the legislation that means developers are obliged to provide “affordable” homes as part of their new developments, such as shared ownership or social housing.

First Homes would be delivered not as well as, but instead of, these. Currently, this system delivers almost 60% of the precious few social homes that get built.

A paltry 6,000 social homes were delivered last year. Social homes are already critically endangered.

First Homes could make them extinct, providing nothing for the people at the sharp end of the national emergency that our housing crisis has become.

J. White,

Wisbech.

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