Another sign of the housing crises

A National Housing Federation report highlights how money spent on housing benefit rose from £16.6bn in the mid-1990s to £25.1bn in 2015-16.

It added that since 2011, no government money has been made available to build homes in England for low paid people to rent.

The federation, which represents housing associations and social landlords, says housing someone in a private rented property costs £21 a week more than housing them in a social rent property, on average.

Its chief executive David Orr said. "We know we need more, better quality social housing. And yet, rather than putting public money into building the homes we need, we are propping up rents in a failing market."

The report pointed out that after the government decided to halt the funding of social rented housing in 2011, the building of such properties fell from 36,000 to 3,000 the next year. This was despite the fact that there are more than a million families on housing waiting lists, the report said. The report concluded: "Not only is it more expensive to house someone in the private rented sector than social housing, but none of that money increases the supply of new homes. "Social landlords do reinvest in new homes, building a third of all new homes last year including for social rent from their own funds, but the same does not happen in the private rented sector."