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Tory cuts to affordable housing funding have cost almost 300,000 new homes, bombshell figures reveal.

The worst housing shortage in decades has forced thousands of Brits to live in temporary accommodation.

Theresa May warned young people are angry that even if they work hard they cannot afford to buy a home.

Now shocking new data from the independent Chartered Institute of Housing reveals why for the first time.

Government investment in affordable housing has been slashed from more than £4billion a year to less than £500million.

Labour analysis of the figures shows the spending drop has resulted in the loss of 295,000 affordable homes.

Labour’s Shadow Housing Secretary John Healey branded it a “scandal” and accused the Tories of “failing” thousands of Brits on “ordinary incomes”.

In 2009/10, capital investment in affordable housing in England was £4.2billion, according to the CIH report.

But after the Tories came to power in 2010, the amount spent was cut each year - to £483million in 2016/17.

(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)

Labour says that had investment continued at the level of 2009/10, an extra £20.6billion would have been spent on low-cost homes.

This could have funded 295,000 homes for social rent, according to Labour, using a typical subsidy level of £70,000 per property.

Independent analysis by Capital Economics suggests this investment would pay for itself in future through billions of pounds less housing benefit spending.

Mr Healey said: “Short-sighted Conservative cuts to affordable homes are pulling up the ladder for people on ordinary incomes who want a decent home to rent or buy.

“As a country, we can’t make housing more affordable without building more affordable homes, but under the Tories the number of new social rented homes has fallen to the lowest level since records began.

“After eight years of failure, it’s clear the housing market is broken and current Conservative housing policy is failing to fix it.”

Housing experts said the lack of affordable housing was “simply unacceptable” and urged the Government to tackle the crisis.

Gavin Smart, deputy chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing, said: “The lack of decent, affordable housing is rapidly becoming one of the biggest issues of our time and if we do not act now it will have a huge impact on our children and their children.

“For many people, homes for social rent are the only truly affordable housing option, yet we are losing this crucial type of accommodation at the time we need it most.

“Our research estimates that between 2012 and 2020 we will lose 230,000 social rented homes as a result of right to buy and other factors.

(Image: Getty)

“This is simply unacceptable and a situation we desperately need to reverse by committing new investment to the building of genuinely affordable housing - that means investing in a significant number of new homes offered at social rent.

“This is not necessarily about spending more, it is about spending more strategically. It is no coincidence that our housing benefit bill has increased rapidly at the same time investment in affordable housing has decreased.

“The Government must urgently review this situation by first making sure the balance of housing investment better reflects the reality of housing need.”

A Daily Mirror investigation in March revealed the Tory housing crisis was costing taxpayers more than £1billion every year.

A shortage of affordable homes means record numbers of homeless people are living in temporary accommodation.

Mrs May made a major speech on housing at the time in which she blamed “NIMBY” local councils for the scandal.

But charities said Britain’s poorest families were paying the price after years of Tory failure to tackle the crisis, leaving them in an “ongoing nightmare”.

The Mirror probe obtained figures through Freedom of Information requests to 380 councils. They showed that £1.1billion was spent on putting homeless families in temporary accommodation last year.

Tonight the Government insisted it was “determined to do more” to help ease the Tory housing crisis.

A Ministry of Housing spokesman said: “We’ve built over 357,000 new affordable properties since 2010, helping deliver the homes our country needs.

“But we’re determined to do more and are investing a further £9billion in affordable homes, including £2billion to help councils and housing associations build homes for social rent.”