Redistributing, or matching, the £4bn that is to be spent on the Houses of Parliament renovation to help with the UK’s housing deficit could instead build 40,000 three-bed houses. This could house 121,000 of the UK’s homeless based on the UK average of three per property, Pure Commercial Finance’s research finds.

Cities in Suffolk that were analysed include Ipswich, whose housing deficit could be improved by 67%, Lowestoft by 169%, and Bury St Edmunds by a huge 281%, if the money was matched and spent on building affordable homes.

The research also uncovered that the average price to build a three-bedroom house in the UK is £99,843.75, based on internal data.

Ben Lloyd, Managing Director of Pure Commercial Finance has commented on this saying: “We deal with professional developers every day and we are well-aware of the demand for affordable housing across the UK and the influence that Brexit is having on borrowing.

“Although we would never suggest cancelling the refurbishment of such a prized national monument, we were shocked to see how matching the refurbishment budget could help towards solving the deficit.”

Some smaller towns in the country could be housed four times over due to their smaller populations. Some of these towns include Caerphilly, Pontypridd, Barnstaple and Chichester.

Government figures reveal that 430,000 homes have been built since 2010, although housing charity, Shelter, estimates that there is still a deficit of 3.2m homes and suggests that there are still around 320,000 homeless in the UK – with 170,000 being in London alone.

Polly Neate, CEO of Shelter, has also commented on this by saying: “It is unforgivable that 320,000 people in the UK have been swept up by the housing crisis and now have no place to call home. These new figures show that homelessness is having a devastating impact on the lives of people right across the country.”