Responding to a warning by the District Councils’ Network of a rise in housing waiting lists as landlords sell up, Cllr David Renard, Local Government Association housing spokesperson, said:

“These findings are concerning and highlight the need to tackle our severe housing shortage by building more social housing, which are much more affordable than in the private rented sector. We have set out the case for building 100,000 social homes for rent each year, which would go a long way towards reducing council housing waiting lists.

We also need to see a cross-departmental government plan to tackle homelessness with long-term investment in prevention and services to support economically vulnerable people and households, to prevent homelessness from happening in the first place.”