POLITICAL parties must commit to building a new generation of social homes to end the housing emergency, according to a coalition of charities, businesses and campaigners.

An open letter with signatories including Grenfell United, The Health Foundation and Ikea is urging a “mass social housebuilding programme” for 90,000 new social homes.

It comes as new survey findings from Shelter suggested that almost three-quarters of social tenants said they could not afford to live in their local area without access to social housing.