The lack of affordable homes in a North East town has been slammed as “heart-breaking” by charity leaders.

Erimus House in Middlesbrough supports young people between the ages of 16 and 25 who are on the streets and they have seen more teenagers in need this year.

Gena Hamilton, project leader at the charity, outlined how young people simply cannot afford the average rent and have no hope of ever owning a home.

This comes as new research reveals that 40 per cent of homes being sold in the town are being bought by private landlords as Buy to Let.

Ms Hamilton said: “What I see is that there is a massive lack of social housing within Middlesbrough.

“There is a high percentage of private rental accommodation and private landlords. They ask a lot of rent for two-bedroom properties.

“These homes tend to be in the run-down areas with high crime and exploitation in them.

“They ask for a lot of money, usually around £800 a month, which is very high for what they are.”

She added that a lot more young people are ending up on the streets which puts them at risk. She believes some of the anger at housing may even have contributed to the rioting in Middlesbrough earlier this year.

“We have had some people in tents outside of Cleveland Police Station," she said.

“We are getting a growing homelessness crisis. This is what our young people are facing.

“We are going to have a generation which has no drive because they cannot stay in their family homes and they cannot afford to rent somewhere.

“It all links back to a shortage of social housing but Middlesbrough Council can’t build more because it is already having financial problems.

“There is real anger when people think other people from abroad are getting help with homes before them. Young people are feeling angry and that is when the far right can take a hold.

“A lot of them are just not getting what they need, the system is broken and needs overhauling.”

A new investigation by Hamptons Research found that 40 per cent of property sales in Middlesbrough are Buy to Let investments. In Darlington it is slightly lower at 30 per cent.

Chris Bailey, campaign manager for Action on Empty Homes, hit out at the decision by Margaret Thatcher to implement Right to Buy which saw two million council homes sold off.

He explained that the stock of council and social housing never recovered and now councils are discharging their legal duty to house people ‘into the private sector’.

Mr Bailey said: “This week we were struck by news that a large percentage of housing sales in areas of the North East such as Middlesbrough and Hartlepool were being made via Buy To Let mortgages to investors keen to jump on the housing crisis bandwagon by buying in an area that is now famous in property investment circles as the place where you can make most profit for least investment.

“That often means what we call running privately rented homes on what we call a low-cost management model with rent funded by housing benefit.

“What we are seeing is people being funnelled through a combination of public policies into lower and lower quality housing in poorer and poorer (or cheaper) places where landlords buy up cheap housing and exploit this to make large profits that don’t get spent in the local area.

“We are all subsidising this practice through housing benefit, instead of housing people more cheaply in homes such as council homes and social housing - where the rent is reinvested in keeping those homes in good condition and is much more likely to be support in the local economy.”

A Middlesbrough Council spokesman said: "Middlesbrough welcomes active and engaged landlords who deliver and maintain quality housing.

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"But the council does share concerns that distant or absentee landlords can lead to lower housing standards.

"This is one of the principal reasons that the Selective Landlord Licensing model was introduced in Newport and North Ormesby.

"This attempts to enforce high standards and ensure properties are managed effectively, while requiring private sector landlords to prove they are 'fit and proper persons' to hold a licence."