One in 14 Welsh households on waiting list for social home, report finds

“For children, this can have a devastating impact, with some trapped in temporary accommodation, while others have to live with the daily challenges of homes that are overcrowded, unaffordable and, in some cases, filled with damp and mould,” it said.

More than half of households on a waiting list are waiting for one-bedroom homes, the report said.

Shelter Cymru found that, at current delivery rates, it would take more than 35 years to provide every household on waiting lists with a home.

Last year, housing associations and local authorities in Wales delivered around 2,600 homes for social rent, which the report said amounted to just over 3% of demand.

Based on its findings, Shelter Cymru has called for more investment from the Welsh government to deliver social homes, alongside a “clear strategy”.

The Welsh government’s target to deliver 20,000 new social rent homes by the end of the current Senedd term represents just over a fifth of overall demand, the report added.

Ruth Power, chief executive of Shelter Cymru, said the figures were a “wake-up call”.

“We must confront the reality that, as a nation, we are failing to meet the needs of our communities,” she said.

Ms Power said that without delivering more social homes, the pressure on local authorities would increase.

“We need to step up our response to the housing emergency in Wales and increase investment to ensure that everyone has access to the basic foundations of a settled home they can afford,” she said.

Shelter Cymru also called on the Welsh government to take a new approach to collecting and sharing data on how many people want and need a social home.

Currently, there is no consistency between local authorities as to how long waiting-list data is stored for.

Three councils also outsource the management of their waiting list to third-sector providers, which are not subject to FOI request requirements. Shelter Cymru said councillors, officials and third-sector staff had enabled the information to be collected.

A spokesperson for the Welsh government said: “We’re doing everything we can to increase the supply of social housing, and despite unprecedented economic challenges, we’ve committed to a record investment of just under £2bn by the end of this Senedd term.”

This week, research from charity Crisis found that the number of people expected to experience “severe” homelessness in Wales by 2041 could be halved through a series of interventions by ministers in the Senedd and Westminster.