Just one home for social rent has been built in a seaside town in the last decade, housing charity Shelter claimed.
Nearly 1,000 social homes in Blackpool were sold or demolished between 2013 and 2023, with 923 homes removed from social rent, according to its research.
Shelter said thousands remained on the waiting list for social housing.
The town’s council said it had built more than 700 new homes “for affordable rent” in the last ten years.
Shelter defines affordable rent properties as different to social housing.
The charity’s website argues that although affordable rents are limited to 80% of market value, they are “less secure” than social tenancies, even though they are “more secure than typical private tenancies”.
Blackpool has more than 7,000 residents waiting for social housing, according to data analysed by Shelter from official sources.
Homeless centre “has helped too many people to count”; UK rents climb by 9% annually on record, according to ONS
The charity called Blackpool’s housing situation “completely unacceptable” and stated that 74% of the city’s 20,500 privately renting households get housing benefits to help with rent payments.
In the previous ten years, Blackpool has only seen the construction of one social dwelling.
Blackpool has thousands of people waiting on waiting lists, Emma Garner of Shelter told BBC Lancashire.
“Families in Blackpool who are unable to pay for additional rent increases or who are stuck in dingy, small temporary housing frequently come to us for assistance.
“There are no social homes available to them,” she stated.
The local and national lawmakers were urged by her “to look at all options to increase the affordable housing available in Blackpool”.
Leave a Reply