15 November 2012 | By Raziye Akkoc, Inside Housing

The government is failing in its commitment to ‘get Britain building’ despite a year having passed since it launched its housing strategy, according to leading housing bodies.

The Chartered Institute of Housing, Shelter and the National Housing Federation attacked the government’s record on overcrowding, homelessness, housing costs and housing sector affordability in their joint housing report, published yesterday.

Each of the areas mentioned were given a red light as part of the traffic light system used to rate the government’s performance in 10 key policy areas: green for improvement, amber for no progress and red for getting worse.

The report warned of soaring rents and increasing homelessness as a ‘worrying’ 331 per cent rise in the number of families being stuck in bed and breakfast accommodation for more than six weeks in the first two years of the government’s term from 160 in the second quarter of 2010 to 690 in the second quarter of 2012.

According to the study, the number of households in temporary accommodation stood at 51,460 in the second quarter of 2012, up 2.4 per cent on the previous quarter.

Despite a series of policy announcements from the government, there was deemed to have been ‘no progress’ in housing supply.

Shelter chief executive, Campbell Robb, said: ‘The government has to step up its game and make sure its rhetoric starts translating into reality.’

Only two areas – empty homes and evictions, and repossessions and arrears – were given a green light.