The Chancellor’s silence on housing in the Budget was a “huge let-down,” after “five years of failure,” John said.
With homelessness on the rise and a generation of young people priced out of homeownership, George Osborne was expected to announce new plans on housing in yesterday’s Budget.
His failure to do so prompted a critical response from John.
He said: “We’ve had over five years of failure on housing with George Osborne as Chancellor – 200,000 fewer home-owners, rising housing benefit, soaring rents, rough-sleeping doubling and fewer homes built over the last Parliament than during any peacetime period since the 1920s.
“There was a big hole in this Budget where housing should have been. The Budget was a huge let-down for the young people and families on ordinary incomes struggling with the cost of housing.
“There was nothing on new affordable homes to rent or buy, nothing on the new investment needed, and nothing on dealing with the causes of the scandal of soaring homelessness.
“This is a Government with no long-term housing plan for the country. On the evidence of today’s Budget, George Osborne is not just failing to fix our housing crisis, he’s given up even trying.”
According to the latest Government statistics the number of rough sleepers in Yorkshire and the Humber increased by 27% between 2014/15, and by 39% over the five years up to 2015.
Renters are also bearing the brunt of the Government’s failure to build enough new housing, as rents soar. New figures released by Shelter found that in South Yorkshire five years rent is now equal to a 20% deposit.
Breaking it down by area the charity reported that the average rent paid over five years for a two bed home in Doncaster is now £26,967; in Sheffield the figure is £32,281 and in Rotherham it is £27,325.