The pace of change has been extraordinary. The number of householders in Britain has grown at five times the rate of the overall increase in the population.
As a consequence, we are now trying to squeeze too many families into too few homes. Shelter has estimated that almost one in ten children are now living in overcrowded accommodation because of a shortage of affordable, family-sized homes. Less than 5,000 such homes were built in England last year.
This month, Shelter begins the first leg of its National Housing Investigation, exploring the housing problems faced by British families today. It is right to draw attention to the problem of overcrowding. There are now well-established links between poor housing conditions and the risks to children of ill health, poor development and educational disadvantage.
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