Problems in Shropshire’s housing market are set to worsen in coming years as the ‘affordability gap’ grows, and the gulf between supply and demand is likely to increase, experts warned today.

According to the National Housing Federation, around 8,250 new homes were built in the region in 2010/11 – but 10,000 more were needed to fulfill the demand in the market as the number of households rises.

Experts believe around 18,000 new households will form in the West Midlands every year to 2033.

The NHF said that the need for more affordable and social housing was increasingly evident, with more than 157,000 households, which equates to more than 350,000 people, on waiting lists for social housing organisations’ accommodation.

The NHF said that it had seen a reduction in the number of households on waiting lists between 2009 and 2010, with 17,269 households on waiting lists for accommodation held by Telford & Wrekin Council and Shropshire Council in 2010 compared with 18,497 households the previous year.

According to the figures Telford & Wrekin also cut its waiting list by 3,216 households between 2009 and 2010.

However, in Shropshire Council’s area the waiting lists grew by 1,988 during the same period, meaning an overall decrease of 1,228.

Martin Holland, chief executive of Shropshire Housing Group, said: “The National Housing Federation’s West Midlands Home Truths report warns of a ‘broken housing market’ and the figures speak for themselves.

“House prices in Shropshire and the wider West Midlands are truly beyond the means of lower and even middle income families.

“This combined with rising private sector rents means the options are very limited in this region. As the report states, housing associations provided almost half of all of the homes built in the region last year.

“That’s despite an increasingly tough economic environment.

“It clearly demonstrates our commitment as a sector to ensure that those most in need have suitable, high quality housing at a price that they can manage,” he said.

“Affordable and social housing is under tremendous strain and rising unemployment, coupled with the fact that the West Midlands has seen the largest increase in homelessness of any English region, are only going to make things worse,” added Mr Holland.

“More needs to be done to ensure we have a sustainable supply that can meet the challenges ahead and today is an opportunity to remind the Government and local authorities that housing needs to be top of the political agenda.”