Government accused of failing to act on housing crisis after delay to long-awaited social housing plans

Ministers have been accused of “failing to act” on the housing crisis after missing their own deadline to publish blueprints for social housing and rough sleeping before the summer recess.

Billed as ”the most substantial report of its kind for a generation” by the then-housing secretary Sajid Javid, the long-awaited green paper on social housing was originally due to published in the spring.

The document was then promised by the summer but it has now been delayed for the second time. A separate plan to tackle rough sleeping was also due to be published before the summer recess.

The holdup casts doubt on Theresa May’s pledge to make it her “personal mission” to solve the housing crisis and to stamp out rough sleeping, which she said was a source of “national shame”.

Whitehall departments rushed out more than 20 announcements on Tuesday – the final day before MPs went off for their summer break – but neither document was published in the flurry of government statements.

Shadow housing secretary John Healey said: “This is a government and department in disarray, failing to act on every front to deal with the housing crisis.

“Ministers pledged to publish this social housing policy paper before the parliamentary recess, but have missed their own deadline.

“After eight years of failure, this government can’t even get its act together to publish a policy paper, never mind fix the country’s housing problems.”

It comes after Tory MP Kit Malthouse became the third housing minister in seven months in a fresh reshuffle prompted by the resignations of both David Davis and Boris Johnson over Brexit.

Catherine Ryder, head of policy at the National Housing Federation, which represents housing associations, said: “Last year Theresa May made it her personal mission to fix the housing crisis.

“We were told the social housing green paper would be a generation-defining piece of work – ‘a fundamental rethink’ of social housing that would make it ‘the pride of the nation’.

“But it has been delayed again, as the third housing minister since the announcement gets to grips with the scale of the housing crisis.

“The government must use this opportunity to urgently address the shocking shortfall in affordable housing.”

More than 145,000 affordable homes need to be built every year to keep up demand, she said, and called on the government to stop selling publicly owned land to the highest bidder.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “Since the Grenfell Tower tragedy we have been listening to residents and those across the social housing sector.

“Providing high-quality and well-managed social housing is a top priority for this government.

“Shortly we will publish a green paper that sets out a new deal for social housing tenants.”

MPs return from the summer recess in September, when parliamentary business wil resume.