Brown urged to tackle housing

Homelessness charity Shelter and the National Housing Federation want Mr Brown to commit to building 20,000 extra social rented homes each year to tackle the critical lack of affordable housing.

They say the forthcoming 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review is a "golden opportunity" for him to make housing a priority for his future government. The Review will set public spending priorities from 2008-2011.

The organisations believe 60,000 extra social homes are needed in this period on top of planned developments in order to provide a total of 210,000 new affordable homes.

Housing associations are prepared to match pound-for-pound the £11.6 billion of public investment required for the programme.

In a new report entitled The Opportunity of a Lifetime, the organisations warn urgent action is needed to tackle the "housing timebomb" head on.

They say around 223,000 new households are expected to be created every year for the next 20 years and already nearly 90,000 households are living in temporary accommodation with 1.6 million people on housing waiting lists.

David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, said: "Rising house prices and decades of under investment have left affordable housing in desperately short supply. Gordon Brown has stated his commitment to addressing this but he needs to put his money where his mouth is. The comprehensive spending review is his golden opportunity.

"Education, education, education was Tony Blair's motto. Housing, housing, housing must be Gordon Brown's."

Adam Sampson, director of Shelter, said: "It's a damning indictment that in 21st century Britain, one in seven children - 1.6 million - across Britain are growing up homeless or badly housed, damaging their health, education and future chances. If Gordon Brown wants to prove he is committed to tackling the housing crisis and giving these children a brighter future, he must pledge to build an extra 20,000 social homes when he sets out his spending plans this autumn."