Lack of new affordable home building and Right to Buy sales have hit the South West housing stock so hard that there are fewer affordable homes for people to rent now than there were in 1991, according to new research by the National Housing Federation.

And the phenomenon is not limited to the South West either. Leaders in the South East have also been warned they must control the escalating housing affordability crisis as a matter of urgency.

Last year housing associations built 1,295 brand new homes across the South West, an average of just 29 in each local authority area. Yet South West councils sold 2,525 affordable homes under the Right to Buy, an average of 56 in each local authority area.

With the homes housing associations managed to acquire in the second hand market and through other sources during 2003-04 counted as well, 3,391 affordable homes were provided throughout the region, just over half the minimum figure of 6,000 new affordable homes a year recommended by the government in its Regional Planning Guidance for the South West.

Once Right to Buy is taken into account this represents a net gain of 866 affordable homes across the region or just 19 homes for each local authority area.

NHF senior regional officer for the South West, Stuart Ropke said, "When you consider that another 14,000 households joined council housing waiting lists in the South West last year and 11,230 families were accepted as homeless, you can see the scale of the housing problem we face in the region."

"The government is planning to put much more money into housing association building of affordable homes over the next two years, which is welcome news, and our members are continuing to increase their efficiency in order to maximise the effect of this increase."

"But the Right to Buy is draining our efforts at providing sufficient homes to meet the housing needs of people who can’t access decent housing in our high priced housing market."

"We would like to see tighter restrictions on when affordable social housing can be bought, but all of the political parties seem intent on selling off the family silver. It’s a massive waste of resources."

In 2004 the South West Regional Observatory, part of the Regional Development Agency, published figures showing the affordable housing stock dropped by 2% between 1991 and 2003, despite the new building which took place in those years.