It is a reality universally acknowledged that the UK has a housing scarcity urgently in want of consideration. Most individuals additionally agree the disaster can solely be solved by a government with a possible long-term plan for delivering sustainable, inexpensive houses, in partnership with the non-public sector. Calls for action have been rising progressively louder over time and now echo throughout the political spectrum.
National House Building Council (NHBC) figures revealed on 13 May present that solely 26,240 new houses have been accomplished within the first quarter of 2024, down 13% on a 12 months in the past and a rustic mile away from the 300,000 a 12 months promised by the mid-2020s within the final government manifesto. These paltry figures have been blamed on increased mortgage charges and ‘the climate’. But there are far deeper structural points at play, together with the planning regime, environmental regulation, central and native funding, political will…the listing goes on.
The build-up (no pun meant) of our property deficit has been a few years within the making. It is 27 years since Tony Blair got here to energy promising ‘joined up government’, inserting housing on the centre of his coverage programme, and 20 years since his government commissioned Kate Barker’s housing evaluation, which was the primary to establish the necessity for 300,000 new houses per 12 months to fulfill the wants of the populace. The Conservative/Lib Dem coalition described the state of UK housing as ‘dysfunctional’ in 2010, then presided over a 35% minimize in government funding for housebuilding (together with a 44% discount in social housing funding). Since 2015, the Tory incumbent has launched a controversially punitive tax regime for buy-to-let landlords and launched some schemes to assist first-time consumers, however carried out little to handle the underlying points creating the power undersupply of property.
In reality, Kate Barker has this 12 months joined one other (non-public) fee to handle the housing scarcity. Little surprise she describes it as “miserable” that lots of the issues she recognized in her 2004 evaluation stay, and says {that a} “pragmatic overthink is overdue”.
The pragmatic ‘overthink’ must be daring and far-sighted. The reality is that no government is ever round lengthy sufficient to place really long-term plans into impact. They are, maybe inevitably, pushed by the short-term pressures of press and public opinion on what is occurring proper now, and it’s powerful for them to take politically unpopular selections. But if we’re to repair the housing disaster in a sustainable approach, and ship adequate respectable houses to the owner-occupiers, non-public and social tenants of at this time and tomorrow, we have to look not simply past the 5 years of the following Parliament post-election, however to the following 50 years.
That is an actual problem. The subsequent government can have lots on its plate to type out, together with lowering carbon emissions; making our houses extra energy-efficient; securing the vitality provide; well being and social care provision; public transport; cleansing up the water provide; giant infrastructure tasks resembling colleges and hospitals, and the small matter of making certain the safety of the UK in an more and more turbulent world.
All of those points are urgent and the diploma to which they’re prioritised will rely on a variety of influencing components. But it absolutely is sensible – virtually and politically – to acknowledge how necessary housing is, each as one of the crucial fundamental wants we have now as people and one of the crucial aspirational wishes. Ensuring that everybody has entry to respectable lodging with adequate safety of tenure, whether or not owned or rented, ought to be a minimal goal. Encouraging extra individuals to grow to be owner-occupiers additionally is sensible, not simply due to the peace of thoughts and monetary advantages it brings, however as a result of it fuels aspiration throughout our working lives and gives safety in retirement, whereas relieving the government of the price of supporting a rising pensioner inhabitants in non-public rented lodging.
Of course, the unintended consequence of selling owner-occupation is commonly a lift to accommodate worth inflation – until it’s accompanied by a big improve within the variety of properties being constructed.
A brand new administration must deal with the availability/demand imbalance plaguing our housing market as a high precedence. It ought to use the reams of housing market analysis already carried out by quite a few cross-party commissions as wise blueprints for action, moderately than losing time on a brand new raft of White Papers analysing the identical points. Appointing a devoted housing minister and preserving them within the function for greater than 5 minutes could be universally acknowledged as an excellent place to start out.
Kate Davies is govt director on the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association
