Birmingham's Big Affordable Housing Fail
Birmingham is missing its affordable housing targets by a mile, new data shows.
Despite a boom in city centre apartments, Birmingham City Council is scoring just 10% affordable housing, far short of its target of making 35% of new development affordable, HuffPost U.K. reports.
The latest data, obtained by Birmingham Live and HuffPost U.K., shows that of the 4,768 houses approved for development in 2016-17, just 425 approved were lower cost housing, less than 10%.
Housing charity Shelter revealed that during 2015-16, Birmingham developers behind the construction of 2,916 homes were able to escape from the affordable housing obligations for 1,003 units, arguing it would damage viability, the Birmingham Post reports.
In the West Midlands, there are 97,526 households on the social housing waiting list, according to figures from 2017, but there are just 37,840 available lettings.
