New government figures show that only 140 houses were built in Nottingham in 2014 – causing a shortfall of over 1000 homes.
The National Housing Federation, who published the figures, say that the lack of supply is pricing many people out of owning or privately renting a home.
As a result of this working people are being forced to rely on housing benefit to pay their rent with more working households claiming Housing Benefit across the East Midlands.
David Orr, Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation, said: “The alarm bells sounded long ago, and yet nothing seems to have changed.”
Problem for future generations
“If tackling the housing crisis is about anything, it’s about building more homes – it’s the lack of supply and failure to cater for demand which pushes up prices and leaves needy people out in the cold.”
He said that if politicians did not “get their heads out of the sand” soon then today’s housing crisis could still be a problem for future generations.
House building across England is at the lowest level since the 1920s whilst the population continues to grow.
UK Population growth
- The population in the UK is roughly 64.1 million according to latest Office of Statistics figures.
- This means the UK population has increased by five million since 2001 and by more than ten million since 1964.
- Seven million babies have been born in the last ten years, the same as in the 1950s when England was building an average of 230,000 homes a year.
- For the last six years less than half of that amount have been built (roughly 125,000 a year).
However, a spokesperson for Nottingham Community Housing Association said: “We are committed to building affordable homes to meet demand in Nottingham.”
“We have a number of new developments both on-going and planned for Nottingham, including a site of 67 homes currently under construction at the old Radford Mill site.”
They added that within the next four years another 275 homes will be completed and that they are “working with authorities within Nottinghamshire” to improve the level of house building.
