Sheffield at heart of "housing emergency" says charity as it tackles government for failure to provide social homes

Research from Shelter has found a 46 per cent rise in the number of private renters relying on housing benefit to pay rent over the past year, while nearly 3,000 households in the South Yorkshire city were either made homeless or threatened with homelessness.

Just 229 social homes were built in Sheffield between February 2020 and April 2021, the charity said, with 23,000 households on the social housing waiting list.

Shelter is now calling on the Government to build more social housing as part of their “levelling up” agenda as it says Sheffield has lost 1,500 homes to the Right to Buy scheme.

One former victim of homelessness from Sheffield described how her children’s lives were upended by constant moves after being priced out of the private rental market when she was unable to find a guarantor.

The average rent for a social home in Sheffield is £317, compared to £575 in the private rented sector.

“My daughter’s birthday was in October. She wished for a house. Then, in November, we got one. My daughter has been unsettled since she was four.

“She’s been in and out of places, not knowing where home is, and now she talks about going home for the first time. It’s amazing.

“They are chucking houses up but they aren’t affordable. We need more social housing. It’s not rocket science.”

Shelter’s new report, Levelling Up with Social Housing, looks at the housing emergency through three locations which the charity said lack affordable housing: Sheffield, Burnley and Plymouth.

The report warns the levelling up investment including rail and infrastructure could lead to rising house prices, and calls for the Government to match investment with housing, pound for pound.

Tracey Nathan, Hub Manager at Shelter Sheffield, said: “We believe a safe home is a human right, but the pain and desperation our frontline staff see every day shows this is still a long way off.

“This is especially evident in Sheffield, where the last year has seen huge numbers in the private rented sector having to turn to housing benefit to help pay the rent.

“What the Government needs to know about ‘Levelling Up’ is that without a clear commitment to building social housing specifically, this may prove impossible.”

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities was approached for comment.