Public support in Yorkshire for building more social homes is widespread - Catherine Rutter

The number of people experiencing homelessness in the UK is rising. Research from our charity partner Crisis has revealed that nearly a quarter of a million households across England (242,000) are now experiencing the worst forms of homelessness. Much of this homelessness is hidden, and includes sleeping on the streets, spending night after night on friends’ and families' sofas or stuck in unsuitable temporary accommodation like nightly paid B&Bs.

To help address this problem, we’ve joined with Crisis to campaign for one million additional social rent homes to be built over the next decade.

Around 233,000 new homes were supplied in 2021-22, which falls well short of the 340,000 that estimates suggest are needed annually. When it comes to social housing, there’s a shortfall of around 100,000 new properties every year across the country. In 2021/22, there were only 7,500 new social homes built, and 21,600 were either sold or demolished. Nearly 1.5 million families across the country are stuck on social housing waiting lists.

These are challenging figures and many people aren’t aware of the scale of the problem. In fact, 68 per cent of people in Yorkshire overestimated how many social homes were built in the UK last year.

The declining availability of social housing has contributed to an increase in the number of people living in the private rented sector. In 2022, 44 per cent of households assessed as being at risk of homelessness were renting privately, while social renters made up only 11 per cent.

Our research shows that there is widespread public support for building more social homes. We asked people for their views and 59 per cent of people in Yorkshire agree that social housing could help fix the housing crisis, while 72 per cent believe the UK should build more homes for social rent, provided by councils or housing associations for people on lower incomes.

When we asked the general public who should be prioritised for social homes, many of those polled believed that it should go to homeless people and over a quarter, 27 per cent, said medics, firefighters and police should be prioritised on waiting lists.

People in Yorkshire want policymakers and industry to respond with action that significantly increases the delivery of new social homes.

At Lloyds Banking Group, we’re determined to play our part and we’ve provided around £16bn in new funding to Britain’s social housing sector since 2018.

We’ve also partnered with Crisis to develop a brand new, not-for-profit lettings agency so that those on low incomes can access safe, affordable, quality housing.

Catherine Rutter is ambassador for Yorkshire and the Humber at Lloyds Banking Group.