The government is failing to deliveron its promises to boost housing supply and protect the vulnerable, the National Housing Federation, Shelter and Chartered Institute of Housing have warned.
The joint Housing Report, the first of its kind, sets out what ministers and officials said they would do to tackle the housing crisis and assesses to what extent they have achieved their stated objectives.
It rates the government’s direction of travel under ten main headings using a traffic light system –green for going forward, amber for no progress and red where things are getting worse.
In the first edition of the report, the government receives four red lights – on housing supply, homelessness, help with housing costs and affordability of the private rented sector.
It is allocated three amber lights, on planning, evictions and home ownership, and two green lights, on empty homes and mobility within the social sector. The section on overcrowding has been left without an indicator in the absence of any recent data.
In conclusion the Report says the government needs to do more if it wants to meet its own commitments on housing and suggests that a rethink may be required to correct the direction of policy before things drift off course.
It hopes that the recent government announcements on housing supply and the Right to Buy, and the commitment to publish a housing strategy, are a signal that such a rethink is already underway.