More affordable homes were built in the Forest of Dean this year, new figures show, as numbers rose across England.

More than 63,000 affordable homes were delivered across the country as of March 2023 – the highest number since 2014-15.

But experts said this is still inadequate and a more ambitious house building agenda is needed.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities figures show 246 affordable homes were completed in the Forest of Dean in 2022-23 – up from 227 during the same period the year before.

The figures include social and affordable rental properties, affordable home ownership, shared ownership and first homes. The number of social rent homes, however, has seen a fall in the last decade, with affordable rent now the most common housing for new supply.

Social rental properties are for low-income families and typically cost about 50% of market rents, while affordable housing is provided to low-income earners and can be charged up to 80% of market rents.

Luke Murphy, associate director at think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research, said: “While it’s positive to see the overall number of affordable homes being built rise, it is still far short of adequate and the number of genuinely affordable homes built – those for social rent – remain at historically low levels.”

In the Forest of Dean, 148 affordable rent homes and 75 shared ownership dwellings were delivered.

Mr Murphy added: “The housing crisis in England is having significant impacts on people across the country, with many struggling with high rents, lack of security and stability, and poor quality accommodation.

“We need a far more ambitious house building agenda, which must include planning reform and a significant increase in public investment in genuinely affordable housing.”

Across the country, there were also 71,000 affordable dwellings started on site in 2022-23, with 60 of those in the Forest of Dean.

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter said: “The Government’s statistics show that despite the escalating housing emergency, not enough has changed and we are still miles away from building the number of social homes we need.

“Every day in our frontline services we see the impact of the decades of failure to build social homes in this country.”

“We need urgent action to address the housing emergency,” she added.

“All political parties must commit to the only real, lasting solution, which is to build a new generation of safe and affordable social homes with rents tied to local incomes.”

A DLUHC spokesperson said: “We are already investing in more affordable and social homes, and since 2010 have delivered over 684,800 new affordable homes, including over 171,100 homes for social rent.

“Our £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme will deliver thousands of affordable homes for both rent and to buy right across the country.”