Housing crisis hits British middle-income earners: reserch

New research has revealed that the housing crisis was hitting British middle-income earners at a shocking rate, with those relying on housing benefit to keep their home in spite of being in work rising by 350,000 since 2008.

The research, released on Thursday by the National Housing Federation (NHF), said that those relying on housing benefit to keep their home in spite of being in work has doubled to 22 percent since 2008.

The middle-income households earning between 20,000 to 30,000 pounds (about 32,000 to 49,000 U.S. dollar) a year accounted for two thirds of all new housing benefit claims during the last six years, as the struggle to afford a home gets tougher, it added.

Increasing housing costs were behind the rise in middle-income claimants. It also highlighted the impact of years of only building half of the number of homes needed, stagnant wages and more people renting privately due to a critical shortage of affordable homes, the research said.

"Our shortage of affordable housing is now leaving families on a decent wage unable to cover the cost of their homes. This isn't sustainable or right," said David Orr, NHF's Chief Executive.

"In the 1970s around 80 percent of government housing spend went on building homes with about 20 percent on housing benefits, but today it's the other way round. Billions of pounds being spent on housing benefit is just a costly sticking plaster. What we need is a long-term solution to build the affordable homes we need, so that hard working families can support themselves," David Orr added.

The NHF called for more genuinely affordable housing to be built, without adding to the housing benefit bill.