Responding to the Labour's consultation on the social housing green paper, the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) is calling for housing stock to be improved, as levels have depleted beyond acceptable levels.
NALC wants legislation to ensure large sites are fully built with community infrastructure and sanctions to be applied if developers do not complete builds within agreed timescales.
Furthermore, NALC has issues with proposals to set-up an English Sovereign Land Trust, as it will be hard to implement on the ground.
Cllr Sue Baxter, chairman of NALC, explained: "England’s national housing problems cannot be fixed without more new homes, but this must come as part of a wider national plan.
“A decent, affordable home should be the right of everyone living in this country. Social housing, especially in rural areas, needs to be affordable for all people whatever social housing may be labelled in the future.
"We don’t agree with the idea of trying to introduce a Sovereign Land Trust as we don’t believe this will be workable on the ground.
"Any potential Labour government needs to address these housing issues as a priority".