EAST Cambridgeshire needs more than 1,000 new affordable homes every year according to a report published by a leading housing charity. Housing and homelessness charity Shelter, claims that the district council provided only 20 per cent of the affordabl

EAST Cambridgeshire needs more than 1,000 new affordable homes every year according to a report published by a leading housing charity.

Housing and homelessness charity Shelter, claims that the district council provided only 20 per cent of the affordable homes that were needed in the district in 2009 and said that 1,000 new affordable homes would be needed every year to meet demand.

Building new affordable homes has often been met with opposition from residents adjoining new housing estates, however, who have claimed that sometimes affordable housing increases anti-social behaviour.

Shelter's chief executive Campbell Robb said: "These figures are extremely worrying. The council must work far harder to ensure more desperately needed affordable homes are provided if it ever hopes to meet the housing needs of the local population."

"Independent experts commissioned by the council say 1,009 new affordable homes need to be built each year in East Cambridgeshire, but an average of only 203 have been delivered in the last year, leaving a shortfall of 806 homes per year."

The findings are part of Shelter's new housing league table, a website that provides local housing data including house prices, housing waiting lists and levels of housing delivery.

According to the website, East Cambridgeshire District Council (ECDC) is ranked 146 out of 323 local authorities in England with more than 1,400 households on the waiting list in the district.

Responding to the claims, Jane Hollingworth, head of housing at ECDC, said: "It is disappointing that Shelter has produced information in a way which appears to lay the blame at the council's door. The real obstacles to provision of new affordable housing lie partly with the policies of the various governments of the last 30 years and partly with the very difficult economic climate.

"Most of the new affordable housing in East Cambridgeshire is provided on small rural sites and rely on the willingness of small landlords to provide the land. Despite this we have been exceeding our more realistic target of 137 units a year in East Cambridgeshire - this is 30 per cent of the projected figure for total new build in the district for the next decade. Until this recession we exceeded this goal and we expect to exceed it again next year."

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Do you want more affordable housing or do you have concerns about the social consequences?

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