We knew our country was in the grip of a housing emergency before we took office. But it’s even more grim than we imagined. Not just a high-tax, low-growth economy and crumbling public services. But, lurking under each stone we lift, a frankly scandalous legacy.

Prisons running out of spaces and a broken housing market, causing untold economic and social hardship that has left few communities untouched.

We simply do not have enough homes.

In the death throes of the clapped-out Conservative government, they gave up on governing and compounded their housing failure. In the first three months of this year, work started on 41% fewer homes compared with the same period in 2023.

The result? Families struggling to cover soaring rents and meet mounting mortgage costs. Tenants paying through the nose for damp, cramped and unsafe conditions and too many leaseholders trapped by eyewatering charges with no way out.

A generation locked out of the dream of home ownership. Homelessness going into overdrive, putting councils under huge financial pressure.

Nearly 150,000 children in temporary accommodation – the highest number since records began in 2004. In London, that’s the equivalent of one child in every primary school classroom.

The situation is particularly acute in social and affordable housing. There are 1.3 million households waiting for council homes. But in 2022-23, the last government delivered just 41,000 affordable homes for rent.

Meanwhile, its much-vaunted Affordable Homes Programme was expected to deliver up to 180,000 homes on its launch in 2020.

Perhaps to no one’s surprise, I can reveal that it won’t reach even three-quarters of that goal, according to the revised figures. Another target missed –........

© The Guardian