Brighton and Hove has nine-year housing backlog

Brighton and Hove’s housing backlog will take almost nine years to clear, according to a report by Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity.
The estimate is contained in a report which places Brighton and Hove City Council in the bottom third in the country, Green councillor Ben Duncan said.
The report estimates the time that it would take each council to house everyone on its council housing waiting list.
On Cllr Duncan’s blog he said: “I am horrified by these figures.
“With Christmas fast approaching, I can imagine how difficult it must be for families living in temporary accommodation, or waiting to be moved.
“And with the weather getting colder by the day, and Brighton grinding to a halt (as usual) after a couple of inches of snow have fallen, it is unacceptable that we should even have one homeless person sleeping on the streets in the UK.”
Although demand for housing is high in Brighton and Hove, the Shelter figures indicate a bigger backlog in the Adur district and Worthing. Their backlogs are estimated to be almost nine years and nine months and more than ten years and four months respectively.
In Mid Sussex the figure is more than seven years and nine months and in the Lewes district it is almost six and a half years.
Shelter blamed “the severe shortage of affordable homes”. It urged political parties to make housing an election priority.
Caroline Davey, Shelter’s deputy director of policy and campaigns, said: “The figures clearly show the desperate lack of affordable housing throughout England, and how we are simply not building enough homes to meet the growing demand.”
Cllr Duncan said: “The Green Party believes that the Government has a key role to play in addressing the housing crisis by employing building workers in a large programme of environmentally sustainable social housing, creating both new homes and new jobs.
“And locally, the council has a responsibility to make extra efforts to ensure empty homes are brought into use – a real problem here in Brighton.
“Greens strongly advocate extra support to enable the homeless to get off the streets and into safe accommodation.”