250 years to meet social rent housing need. Change is needed.

There are currently 31,000 families waiting for a council home in Birmingham. In addition, there is a significant backlog of applications still awaiting assessment. As of April 2024, that backlog amounted to at least 10,358 applications.

In 2022, out of 20,000 housing applications, only 3,116 households were accommodated. This number fell to 2,484 the following year (April 2023 to March 2024), while applications rose to 23,500 in 2024. Then, between January and December 2025, the Council and registered providers let 3,173 properties, yet the number of households waiting for a home had grown by 7,500 in just over two years.

The type of housing on offer—mostly one-bedroom flats—also does not reflect demand, which is primarily for family homes (two- and three-bedroom properties). In 2022, 6,399 households applied for a two-bedroom home, but only 882 were allocated one.

To make matters more concerning, council housing stock is decreasing, from 62,918 in 2015 to 57,869 in 2025 (a loss of 5,049 over ten years). Registered providers have seen only a slight increase, from 41,502 in 2014 to 45,326 in 2024 (an additional 3,824 homes). By contrast, the private sector has grown significantly, from 321,250 in 2014 to 352,937 in 2024 (an increase of 31,687), and this number continues to rise, largely driven by private investment firms purchasing luxury apartments in the city for the rental market

The current provision of social and affordable housing is insufficient to meet demand.

Birmingham City Council advertises an average of 57 properties a week and receive approximately 450 applications each week. This means that roughly 20,000 families per year remain with their housing needs unmet, producing that growing backlog of households on the waiting list and applications still to be assessed.

According to a report by Iceni Projects commissioned by the Birmingham City Council ahead of the current draft of the Local Plan, there is an additional need of 5396 affordable rent and social rent homes each year.

Yet what has been built in Birmingham does not reflect this need.

According to FOI data, 22,483 homes were completed in Birmingham between 2020 and 2025, of which 762 were “affordable” rent and only 407 were for social rent. Approximately 90% of the houses being built is market housing and luxury housing, in a city where 80% of the annual need is affordable rent and social rent housing.

At this rate of delivery, it would take approximately 250 years to provide social rent homes for the estimated 20,000 families whose housing needs remain unmet every year.

This is the result of a planning model that has bent what is considered realistic and deliverable to the logic of viability — namely, the guarantee of developers’ 15–20% profit margins.

Profit has taken priority over housing need in the city.

This has enabled developers not only to reduce the amount of affordable and social housing they commit to at the planning application stage, but also to deliver even less at the completion stage. Between 2018 and 2023, 4,557 affordable homes were approved, but only 1,539 were completed.

A different model is needed.