A HOUSING charity says 5,500 North-East children could remain in sub-standard housing unless 5,000 homes are built over the next six years.

Shelter says the situation could get worse unless £38m worth of social-rented homes are built in the region.

In a report published today, Shelter says that without these homes, the Government will fail to reach its target to reduce the number of people in temporary accommodation.

The report highlights findings from research conducted by experts at Cambridge University.

The charity is calling for 5,000 homes to be built in the North-East by 2011 and 8,750 to be built in Yorkshire and the Humber.

The Government, however, is only committed to building 3,000 in the North-East and 5,250 in Yorkshire and the Humber.

There are 830 children in temporary accommodation in the region and 31,400 in overcrowded accommodation.

Shelter spokeswoman Hannah Fox, speaking about the situation in the North-East, said: "If these 2,000 extra homes are built, 5,500 children would be lifted out of the most severely bad housing.

"If the total is not built, those children will have to carry on living in that bad housing for longer until something is done.

"If something is not done to tackle this, it is only going to get worse."

A Treasury-commissioned review has recommended an extra 23,000 homes are built nationwide to solve the problem.

The Government has committed to building 10,000 of these, but Shelter said 30,000 are needed in total.

Shelter is calling on Gordon Brown to commit to the extra houses in his pre-Budget report in November, when a formal response to the Treasury review is expected.

The North-East has the fastest growing rate of homelessness, with the number of homeless people having risen by 91 per cent since 1997, followed by Yorkshire and Humber with an increase of 77 per cent.

Ms Fox said one problem has been the Government concentrating on creating affordable housing for first-time buyers rather than social housing.

She said: "There is a recognition of the problem and they are trying to do things to tackle it, but they are looking in the wrong direction.

"We feel that the fundamental problem with the housing crisis is people at the low end of income who just want somewhere to live."

Shelter is calling on Gordon Brown to end bad housing for children. To back the petition online, go to www.shelter.org.u