New statistics show that 100 additionalsocial homes were built in Mendip in 2021/2022.

Data from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities show 431 social homes were built in Mendip in the ten years to March 2022 – although none were built in the latest year.

Meanwhile, 240 social homes were sold and 91 demolished over the same period – meaning that the area has gained 100 homes over the past ten years.

While it's good news for Mendip, the district is very much bucking the trend - across England, 194,000 social homes were sold in the decade to March 2022, and 55,000 demolished. Just 84,000 were built over the same period – resulting in a net loss of 165,000 social homes.

These figures do not include sales for low-cost homeownership.

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said the country is "firmly in the red" when it comes to its social housing stock.

"We lose far more homes than we build every year, and the losses are mounting up," she said. "The social housing deficit is at the heart of the housing emergency, The fundamental lack of genuinely affordable homes has pushed millions of people into insecure, expensive and often discriminatory private renting."

Different figures from DLUHC also show that as of March 2022, 1.2 million people were on local authority waiting lists for social housing across England – including 1,824 in Mendip.

Ms Neate continued: "The Government can't afford to allow this decline to stretch into another decade if it has any hopes of meaningfully levelling up. Instead, it must invest in a new generation of the homes we really need – secure, genuinely social housing."

A spokesperson for the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, said: "Increasing the number of genuinely affordable homes is central to our levelling up mission.

"Since 2010 we have delivered over 620,000 affordable homes in England, including over 160,000 for social rent.

"But there is much more to do and that is why we're investing £11.5 billion to build more of the affordable, quality homes this country needs."