According to the figures, 17,589 social homes were either sold or demolished last year in England, yet just 9,866 social homes were built – a net loss of 7,723 homes.

In the past ten years, there has been a net loss of 180,067 social homes in England.

A total of 1.33 million households in England are currently stuck on council waiting lists for a social home, an 3% increase on last year.

Matt Downie, chief executive at Crisis, said: “Homelessness is rising, yet we’re still losing more social homes than we’re building. The lack of safe and secure housing is having untold consequences on people’s lives.

“Children robbed of a stable upbringing, people trapped in expensive rented accommodation that’s riddled with mould, and parents forced to spend hours on buses to get to work or school. We cannot let the housing crisis affect further generations to come.”

Mr Downie continued: “The Westminster government’s commitment to build 1.5 million homes and deliver the biggest wave of social housing in a generation is the action we need.

“But to turn this vision into a reality we need to see 90,000 social homes built every year and funding at the forthcoming spending review to actually deliver them.

“In the meantime we must pull every lever available to us, including repurposing empty homes, so that people can move out of homelessness for good.”