New Doncaster social housing lettings fell by more than a third in last decade

Across England, access to affordable rental properties has steadily declined, with the number of households provided with new social lettings each year falling from 396,000 in 2011-12 to 267,000 last year.

Housing charity Shelter said the only way to solve the housing crisis is to "invest in a new generation of good quality and sustainable social homes".

The latest Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities figures show there were 1,375 new social housing lettings offered to tenants in Doncaster in 2021-22 – up from 1,019 the year before.

Despite the recent increase in new lets, 2,496 new lets were offered in 2011-12, well below the current figure.

This covers all social housing, which is split into affordable or intermediate rent, and social rent. The former means a tenant pays 80% of market value, while the latter is set by the Government, is paid to registered providers and local authorities, and is significantly lower than the private market.

The figures also show 1.2 million households were on local authority waiting lists at the end of March 2022.

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said this "just isn't good enough".

Ms Neate said: "Every day our frontline services deal with the consequences of not having enough social housing, from families stuck in unsuitable and often poor-quality temporary accommodation to people being pushed into homelessness because they can no longer keep up with soaring private rents."

"There is only one lasting solution to the housing emergency, and that is to invest in a new generation of good quality and sustainable social homes," she added.

Nationally, the number of new properties let as solely social rents – the more affordable social housing category, and roughly equal to 50% of market value – has declined significantly over the last decade.

There were just 225,000 in 2021-22, down from 391,000 in 2011-12.

In Doncaster, 1,228 (89 per cent) of the new social housing lettings were among the most affordable category – down from 2,488 10 years ago.