The government is to bring forward a green paper on social housing in England.
In the wake of Grenfell, the green paper will look at safety issues but will also look at the overall quality of social housing, service management and the way social homes and their tenants are taken care of. It will also look at the rights of tenants and show how their voices can be better heard.
Communities secretary Sajid Javid said that the green paper will be “the most substantial report of its kind for a generation”.
The announcement comes after both the NHF and CIH warned of the deeping crisis in the social housing sector.
At the NHF's Annual Conference, Chief Executive David Orr said: "It is absurd that we're spending less on building social housing than we did in the nineties – there are even more people today on housing waiting lists than then despite increasingly stringent criteria.
"We know we need more, better quality social housing. And yet, rather than putting public money into building the homes we need, we are propping up rents in a failing market. Ultimately, this is poor value for the taxpayer and has a knock-on effect on everyone struggling to rent or buy.
"The Prime Minister is right that we've not paid social housing enough attention. After the tragic fire at Grenfell, this crisis can no longer be ignored. The Government must be bold and make a break with the past by making money available to build genuinely affordable homes.
"There's more than a billion pounds that remains unspent on Starter Homes. Let’s put this money to use and let housing associations build 20,000 of the genuinely affordable homes the nation needs."
Following the speech, the minister pledged a "wide-ranging, top-to-bottom review" of the issues facing the sector.
“It will kick off a nationwide conversation on social housing," he explained. "What works and what doesn’t work. What has gone right and what has gone wrong. Why things have gone wrong and – most importantly – how to fix them.”
The green paper will also look at wider issues of place, community, and the local economy.
