Make social homes exempt from 'right to buy'- Norfolk housing group
Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner says their investment is "the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation"
A housing trust in Norfolk is calling for social homes to be made exempt from the 'right to buy' scheme.
It's after the Government announced they plan to build 180 thousand of these properties by 2035.
The figure would be six times the number of social homes built in the 10 years up to 2024.
It's a plan that's being backed by a £39 billion investment announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in last month's spending review.
"We have a really leaky bathtub situation"
Dr Jan Sheldon is from St Martins based in Norwich
She told us why this move would make a real difference:
"At the moment we have a really leaky bathtub situation, where homes are draining faster than local authorities can build them".
"We know that for every six homes that a local authority is able to sell, they can only afford to build one more which is frankly unsustainable"
"It's not just the three to five bedrooms that we need. It's the one to two bedroom units that we need for those who are just wanting to start out on the housing ladder.
"There also desperately needs to be provision for single homeless people as well".
Calling on the social housing sector to "work together to turn the tide on the housing crisis together", the Deputy Prime Minister said the investment was "the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation".
She said: "We are seizing this golden opportunity with both hands to transform this country by building the social and affordable homes we need, so we create a brighter future where families aren't trapped in temporary accommodation and young people are no longer locked out of a secure home."
But even the 180,000 new social homes set to be promised on Wednesday may not be enough to solve Britain's housing crisis.
Housing charity Shelter has argued that the Government needs to build 90,000 new social homes a year for the next decade - five times the figure Ms Rayner has committed to.
According to Shelter, building 90,000 social homes a year would clear waiting lists, which currently stand at around 1.3 million households, and end the use of temporary accommodation.
Mairi MacRae, Shelter's director of campaigns, said the focus on social housing was "a vital step in tackling the housing emergency and getting homelessness under control", but urged the Government to do more.
She said: "Now they must go further and ramp up building to 90,000 social rent homes a year - this means getting tough on developers, supporting councils to get building and having a clear, overall social rent target for all delivery."
Ms Rayner's target for social and affordable housing forms part of a wider long-term plan also due to be published on Wednesday, setting out how the Government both build more houses and improve housing standards.
It is expected to include a commitment to implement minimum energy efficiency standards in the social housing sector for the first time and extend the decent homes standard to the private rental sector.
The decent homes standard currently only applies to social homes, and includes requirements to keep properties in a reasonable state of repair, have reasonably modern facilities and be free of major hazards such as mould or asbestos.
Currently, around a fifth of privately rented homes are thought not to meet the standard.
Wednesday's plan will also include further reforms of the right to buy system intended to limit the amount of social housing that is sold off.
Last year, the Government cut the discount available to social tenants looking to buy their homes under right to buy, and ministers have been consulting on further changes.
"Labour's approach will mean fewer new affordable homes can be delivered overall"
Shadow housing secretary Kevin Hollinrake said: "Conservatives actually delivered 700,000 new affordable homes when in office, but Angela Rayner can only manage a promise of 300,000.
"By slashing support for affordable home ownership and demanding more expensive social rent, Labour's approach will mean fewer new affordable homes can be delivered overall - and working people will suffer the consequences."