The Government should back calls for an urgent social house building programme over the next year in order to help stop the growing sense of alienation from the democratic system.

The National Housing Federation (NHF) has told the Prime Minister and new Communities Secretary John Denham that housing associations could build 50,000 new affordable homes by the next election, under a new drive aimed at slashing social housing waiting lists, tackling disillusionment and boosting community cohesion.

Housing associations are currently the only organisations still building affordable housing in volume and have delivered around half of all new homes this year.

Under the Federation's proposals, housing associations would deliver thousands of new social homes in areas across the country through £3.2bn of public investment - which would be matched by housing associations paying for at least a quarter of the programme.

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Waiting lists for social housing are currently at a record high of 1.8m households - and have been seen as a contributory factor to the disillusionment behind the low turnout in many areas at the recent Euro elections.

NHF Chief Executive David Orr said: "Access to decent housing should be a basic right in any modern democracy, however with social housing waiting lists standing at a record high too many people feel that they will never get a decent affordable home.

"This causes disillusionment and undermines community cohesion, as extremists are then able to go into neighbourhoods and peddle the myth that migrants get unfair access to social housing - which of course is nonsense.

"To ensure we pull back those who feel alienated we need an urgent affordable house building programme, through which housing associations can quickly deliver thousands of decent homes for social rent.

"If ministers invest £3.2bn, housing associations will compliment this with their own investment, and deliver 50,000 new social homes by next June. This would be a very powerful way of creating a new sense of belonging among those who currently feel excluded and finally start to make inroads into the deplorably long social housing waiting lists."

(CD/JM)