Christian Homelessness Charity Condemns Social Housing Review

Christian homelessness charity Housing Justice has reacted with concern to a publication reviewing social housing by Professor John Hills.

The review, commissioned by the government, sought to analyse existing government housing policy as well as to map out the future of social housing. Housing Justice believes that it has failed to address the fundamental issue which is increasing the supply of social housing.

Housing Justice was formed in April 2003 by the merger of two long-standing housing charities, the Catholic Housing Aid Society (CHAS) and the Churches National Housing Coalition (CNHC). In January 2006 Housing Justice merged with UNLEASH (Church Action on Homelessness in London).

Chief Executive of Housing Justice Alison Gelder commented "We fear that Professor Hills' review fails to tackle the main problem. This review provides no hope for the 92,000 homeless families in temporary accommodation, the more than 1.6million families on council waiting lists or the thousands of single people in insecure accommodation.

"In addition it offers no respite for the 500,000 families having to endure overcrowded housing. What these people need is for the government to invest at once in new affordable housing that is the right size and in the right locations."

She went on "Every day our housing advice centres see the results of the failure of government housing policy over the past two decades, in particular the failure to invest in new social housing. If the government gave a commitment to increasing the supply of affordable housing and making the current stock fit for purpose many of the problems Professor Hills identifies would be eliminated."

The report by Professor John Hills - Ends and Means: the future roles of social housing in England is available on the London School of Economics website www.lse.ac.uk

Further information on Housing Justice and Homelessness Sunday is available at www.housingjustice.org.uk