Hundreds of social homes lost across Portsmouth, Gosport, Fareham and Havant in past decade

The figures come as housing charity Shelter urges the government to invest in a new generation of ‘genuinely social housing’.

Data from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) show 142 social homes were built in Portsmouth in the 10 years to March 2022 – including 16 in the latest year. However, 817 social homes were sold and 162 demolished over the same period – meaning the area has lost 837 homes over the past 10 years.

The figures also revealed a net loss over the same period of 456 social homes in Gosport, 140 in Fareham and 50 in Gosport.

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said the country is ‘firmly in the red’ when it comes to its social housing stock.

‘We lose far more homes than we build every year, and the losses are mounting up,’ she said. ‘The social housing deficit is at the heart of the housing emergency. The fundamental lack of genuinely affordable homes has pushed millions of people into insecure, expensive and often discriminatory private renting.’

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Different figures from DLUHC also show that as of March 2022, 1.2m people were on local authority waiting lists for social housing across England – including 887 in Portsmouth.

Ms Neate continued: ‘The government can’t afford to allow this decline to stretch into another decade if it has any hopes of meaningfully levelling up. Instead, it must invest in a new generation of the homes we really need – secure, genuinely social housing.’

Recent research by the Resolution Foundation think tank found that nearly one in five social renters have fallen behind on their housing costs this winter.

Meanwhile nearly half of social renters, 48 per cent, reported being unable to afford to replace electrical goods, or switch the heating on when needed, the researchers found.

A spokesperson for the DLUHC, said: ‘Increasing the number of genuinely affordable homes is central to our levelling up mission. Since 2010 we have delivered over 620,000 affordable homes in England, including over 160,000 for social rent. But there is much more to do and that is why we’re investing £11.5 billion to build more of the affordable, quality homes this country needs.’