Homelessness campaigners are calling on Michael Gove to address the lack of social housing as England has lost almost 500,000 units since the turn of the century.
The pool of social homes, which are rented out at low rates by councils and housing associations, has shrunk by just under 480,000 since 2000, according to housing charity Shelter.
The National Housing Federation has calculated that there are now 1.6m families waiting for a social home, far more than the 1m on the official council waiting list.
Most of the decline in available stock is due to the continued take-up of Right to Buy, which was extended to tenants of housing associations in 2014.
Gove acknowledged at a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference last week that the supply of social housing had “not kept pace with the demand”.
He has previously called for more social housing to be built while running for the leadership of the Conservative Party in 2016.
