Nearly 4,000 social homes lost last year as more people are pushed into homelessness
12.02.2026
Today (Thursday 12 February), new Government data reveals a worsening housing crisis in England, with more social homes being sold or demolished than there are being built, acquired or converted.
New figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government show that in England there was a net loss of 3,834 homes for social rent – more than double the number lost in the previous year.
16,291 social homes were either sold or demolished last year in England, yet just 10,807 social homes were built.
Over the past three years we have seen*:
|
|
2024/25 |
2023/24 |
2022/23 |
|
Gains |
17,602 |
19,834 |
19,754 |
|
Loss |
-21,436 |
-21,521 |
-23,809 |
|
Net change |
-3,834 |
-1,687 |
-4,055 |
Responding to the figures, Matt Downie, Chief Executive at Crisis, said: “Behind today’s figures are hundreds of thousands of people facing the trauma and indignity of homelessness because we are not building new social homes at anywhere close to the scale required. This comes at a time when record numbers of people are sleeping on the streets or trapped in temporary accommodation with nowhere else to turn.
“On taking office, the Government promised to deliver a new generation of social homes. We back them to the hilt on this ambition but fear they are on course to fail unless urgent action is taken.
“The best evidence shows that we need 90,000 social homes delivered a year to turn the tide on rising homelessness – but we're a far cry from that. In London, there have already been moves to reduce affordable housebuilding targets, which we worry will have a long-term impact on delivering social homes for generations to come.
“Government must go further and faster, bringing forward promised funding to boost the delivery of social homes and setting a national minimum target on large scale housing developments to focus minds. A ‘Britain Built For All’ must provide enough safe, secure homes for people on the lowest incomes.”
Notes to Editor
*MHCLG have recently revised their statistical releases on this to provide their own figure on net change in social housing. This differs to the method Crisis used for calculating net gain/loss prior to these statistical bulletins being introduced, and includes gains due to acquisitions, conversions and changes to tenure, which were not included under our previous method, as well as new builds. Due to the changes to the publications of the statistics, we're not able to make comparisons going back further than 2022/23.