New Burnley social housing lettings fell by almost a quarter in past decade

There were 760 new social housing lettings offered to tenants in Burnley in 2021-22 – down from 844 the year before, the latest Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities figures show.

A decade ago, in 2011-12, 985 new lets were offered.

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."

In Burnley, 581 (76%) of the new social housing lettings were among the most affordable category – down from 982 10 years ago.

Luke Murphy, associate director at think tank The Institute for Public Policy Research, said: "All of this points to the failure to build sufficient homes to meet demand, including genuinely affordable homes. The Government must rapidly address this by increasing investment in affordable housing and reforming the land market and planning to increase the overall supply."

The DLUHC said it is investing £11.5b. into building more social homes to deliver tens of thousands of homes available for rent and sale through its Affordable Homes Programme.

A spokesperson added that the Government is "committed to building more social homes".