Plymouth housing crisis 'heart-breaking'

More than 4,000 new homes were said to be needed in Plymouth to help ease the housing crisis

The housing crisis in Plymouth has been described as “heart-breaking” by a councillor who said 4,000 new homes were needed.

Cabinet member for housing Labour Councillor Chris Penberthy said many working families had found themselves in a situation they had never faced before.

The city council said a mass house building programme would cost in the region of £100m.

The government's Department for Levelling Up said it had laid out an "ambitious long-term plan for housing" in the South West.

The bill for placing people in temporary accommodation in the city had risen from £800,000 to £6m in the past five years, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

In the past 18 months the number of people on the housing waiting list has increased by 50% from 8,000 to 12,000.

Mr Penberthy said rough sleepers were just the "tip of the iceberg".

He added: “Increasingly today, we are seeing people in work - families - because of no fault of their own, becoming homeless."

He said families were facing landlords increasing their rent to unaffordable levels and some were being served with 'no-fault' eviction notices.

A spokesperson for the Department for Levelling Up said: “We are already on track to deliver one million homes this parliament and we have announced £10bn investment to deliver more of the right homes in the right places.”

The council’s performance, finance and customer focus overview and scrutiny committee was told that households in need of social housing outstripped supply by 2,575 last year.

And for every private rented home available, there were up to 100 applications.

Mr Penberthy said a long-term housing settlement to tackle homelessness and raise the local housing allowance would be two ways in which the government could help right now.

He told councillors that ministers were “reactive” and not “proactive” with funding, so councils could not plan ahead.

Labour Councillor Bill Stevens said the situation was not helped by the fact that the government was on its seventh housing minister since 2010, causing "uncertainty".

Tory Councillor Ian Darcy said consistency around grant funding would be very much welcomed.