Waiting list for social housing set to hit five million by 2010

UP to five million people could be on the waiting list for social housing within two years as the economic slowdown continues.

The effects of the credit crunch and the slowing economy could see two million families stuck in the queue for help, local authority leaders have warned.

Councils are already struggling to cope with increasing demand for housing association accommodation, and the number of households waiting for it has grown from one million in 2001 to 1.6 million in 2007.

Hundreds of thousands more are expected to join them by 2010 as high house prices, fewer mortgages, increasing numbers of repossessions and a slowdown in housebuilding bite.

Housing Minister Caroline Flint warned the Cabinet this week that housebuilding was "stalling" and that prices could fall by up to ten per cent "at best" this year.

Councils today called for freedom to increase their housing stock by being able to borrow freely and remortgage assets to reinvest.

Lembit Opik, Lib Dem housing spokesman, said: "Ministers should feel ashamed for presiding over a doubling in the social housing waiting list since Labour came to power."