I didn’t grow up in social housing. My childhood was spent in an architecturally unremarkable housing development in a picture-postcard Bedfordshire village. My understanding of council homes was, if I’m honest, limited and filtered through stereotypes. It wasn’t until I started working in the built environment that I began to grasp what social housing really meant: not just shelter but something that could fundamentally change lives. One early project with CityWest Homes underlined that. We converted a two-bed flat into a four-bedroom duplex in a prime London postcode. It was, at the time, the biggest and most complex job we’d taken on. When the work was done, I walked the site with the client, proud of the team’s achievement. A young girl living there thanked me. I nodded politely, but she stopped me. ‘No, you don’t understand,’ she said. ‘I finally have my own room. I used to share with my brothers. Now I can do my homework. I want to be a doctor, and now I have somewhere to study.’ That moment reframed everything. Small privileges we take for granted, like a space to think, are often the foundations for ambition. A good home can unlock someone’s potential. So, the recent news that families in parts of England face waits of over 100 years for suitably sized social homes shines a harsh light on what the housing crisis actually means.Advertisement Research from the National Housing Federation, Shelter, and Crisis found that in 32 council areas, the wait is longer than 18 years. In some London boroughs, it’s over a century. More than 1.3 million families are on waiting lists. A record 164,000 children live in temporary accommodation. These aren’t numbers; they’re lives paused. This isn’t just a crisis; it’s a moral collapse. And it’s not even surprising. In my ‘Ghost of Housing’ column, I warned that the unthinkable was becoming inevitable thanks to the consequences of decades of inertia. We need to abandon the fantasy that the market will fix this Even with the government’s pledge to build 1.5 million homes during this Parliament, the elephant in the room is social housing. It’s expensive, risky, and currently unviable. Developers are lining up to build luxury flats, but ask for decent homes for working families, and you’ll hear silence. Why? Because the numbers don’t stack up. We lack skilled labour. We lack incentives. And we’re operating under a planning system that actively works against what we need. The government may be saying the right things, but it needs to show the courage to act. That means radical legislative reform: easy-build zones, streamlined permissions, tax incentives, and rethinking ownership models. And we must upskill the entire industry to ensure we have the right people working in the right areas.Advertisement We also need to abandon the fantasy that the market will fix this. Help to Buy and shared ownership are sticking plasters. Social housing isn’t a safety net; it’s the foundation of a fair society. A century-long wait is a national disgrace. We can’t keep recycling the same discussions while the crisis deepens. Those of us in the industry must speak plainly and act collectively. I hear many views on what needs to change: housing density, green or grey belt use, rural or edge-of-city growth, land valuations, planning reform. And they’re all valid. We need all of these solutions. That’s what the 100-year waiting list reminded me about. We can’t wait for a single, unified masterplan to emerge, because time isn’t on our side. Instead, we need to back every serious idea that could meaningfully shift the dial. That means supporting colleagues who advocate for densification and infill as much as those calling for land release on the green or grey belt. It means listening to planners and architects, local authorities and housing associations. Each can add a piece of the puzzle. Above all, it means speaking clearly and with urgency. If you’re working in this space, your voice matters. If you have a solution, however local or specific, it’s worth hearing. The problem we face is too big for silence or for silos. So speak up, speak out, and support each other. We are running out of time. Kunle Barker is a property expert, journalist and broadcaster  2025-04-17 Kunle Barker comment and share