Wake up call on housing and mental health

Shelter have published worrying statistics on the link between housing and mental health.

The YouGov survey found 18 million people (38 per cent) in Britain believe housing costs cause stress and depression in their family.

This is a rise of seven million people (15 per cent) since 2009. 

Shelter commissioned YouGov to investigate how the risk of repossession and rent rises are affecting people.

The survey also found that:

More than 13 million people (28 per cent) said they keep up with their rent or mortgage without any difficulty, a drop from 19 million people (41 per cent) in 2009.

12 million people (26 per cent) have reduced the amount they spend on food to help pay their housing costs.

These stats are terrible but they do not surprise me, in fact they  back up 100 % what I am finding in my mailbag and on the doorstep.

Lack of access to cheap housing is a major cause of stress to local families.

I have tabled a question to the next Council meeting asking the Lead Member for Housing, Rachel Eden what she is going to do to increase the supply of affordable housing in Reading.

With around 8,000 people waiting for access to housing on the Council's housing register the Council must do everything it can to increase housing supply.

As I blogged earlier in the week, Ed Miliband has no policies to take this.

This is not a new problem - for 13 years Labour failed to tackle it.

The Coalition has set ambitious targets to increase the supply of new homes - we will be campaigning to ensure they deliver on this.