Official Government figures today showed that 217,350 new homes were added to the English housing stock in 2016/17 – 27,700 up on the previous year and the highest since the financial crash of 2007/08. Speaking on the figures and ahead of the next week’s Budget the Prime Minister has said she’ll make it her “mission to build the homes the country needs and take personal charge of the Government’s response.”
Responding to the figures, Denise Hatton, Chief Executive for YMCA England & Wales, said:
“The housing crisis has been decades in the making and Government must make low- cost housing a priority instead of continuing to build new homes that no average person, especially young people, are able to afford.
“Time for empty platitudes and simply reiterating the problems that exist for young people accessing low-cost housing has long passed. What we need to see is concrete action instead of the Government paying lip service to the housing crisis.”