Trust vows to plug huge housing gaps in Shropshire
A trust has pledged to help fill the housing gap in Shropshire after it was claimed not enough were being built to meet demand.
Figures show a shortfall of nearly 45,000 new homes over the last five years in the West Midlands – and across Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin the figure is almost 1,700.
The National Housing Federation said last year fewer than 12,500 homes were built in the West Midlands, far below what was required to accommodate the 19,000 new households, or families, formed each year.
Across Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin, some 1,320 families need a new house every year.
The federation says it is seeing more and more work being done by housing associations to fill the void.
In Shropshire, one such association is the Wrekin Housing Trust, which says it is committed to providing affordable houses in a bid to plug the widening gap between the number of properties in Shropshire and the people needing somewhere to live.
David Hall, head of property at The Wrekin Housing Trust, said: "Seeing many of our new schemes of quality affordable housing already come to fruition, with a further 1,332 in the offing across Shropshire and Staffordshire, is evidence of our commitment to meet the affordable housing gap in Shropshire.
"We welcome every opportunity to provide more much needed affordable new homes, be it for families just starting out or retirement housing, for example, our new ShireLiving schemes." The federation claims that, as a sector, housing associations are working to end the region's crisis, building more than 3,500 new homes, having already started to build almost 5,000 more.
They built more than 40,000 homes across the country in 2015/16, which equated to 29 per cent of all new homes in England.
Locally, Wrekin Housing Trust completed 512 homes last year and is set to provide a further 1,332 homes by 2023 across Shropshire and Staffordshire in a £186 million investment.
Kate Warburton, external affairs manager for the National Housing Federation in the West Midlands, said: "Every new statistical release paints a bleaker picture of the current state of the housing market.
"The reasons for the situation we are in are varied and complex, but one thing is clear – we simply haven't built enough homes as a nation."
