The housing battle 鈥� which party will get Britain building?

Analysis

The housing battle 鈥� which party will get Britain building?

Housing is everyone's problem, but either party will need huge political will to tackle it.

Tamara Cohen

Political correspondent

Tuesday 19 December 2023 19:42, UK

Michael Gove today promised to get tough with councils that don't build enough homes.

But not just any homes - the housing secretary said developments are more popular when they come with amenities like schools and GP surgeries; and are "beautiful", rather than "identikit".

Councils that don't have a local plan for how they will develop this kind of housing in their areas - he named seven - must produce one within 12 weeks or ministers will impose one. A review next year will look at how to speed up planning decisions - and prevent applications being held up by long consultations.

When asked if he considered himself a YIMBY ("Yes in my back yard"), the housing secretary replied "yes".

But critics question how much difference all this will make without funding and when the NIMBYS (not in my back yard) in his party have recently had the whip hand.

Last year Tory MPs opposed to top-down targets in their areas successfully got Rishi Sunak to drop them. Data from July to September this year shows housing applications down 12%.

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Mr Gove insisted this was down to inflation and high interest rates, not lack of will. But homebuilders say it's a direct result of dropping the targets.

Neil Jefferson, managing director of the Home Builders Federation, told Sky News: "The message from the housing secretary today will be received by some [councils] as to say, we don't have to build any homes in the near future in our areas."

He said promises made today - such as 150,000 new homes in Cambridge, a controversial development opposed by the local Tory MP - would not be decided by this government.

Today's speech comes alongside a new planning framework. It makes clear housing targets will only be advisory, and the public will have ample scope to object to developments.

Ministers say they are still on course to build a million homes in this parliament. But the target in their 2019 manifesto - of 300,000 homes a year - is slipping away.

Homebuilding peaked in 2019/20 at 240,000 a year - up from 120,000 after the financial crisis. But research from the National Housing Federation and Shelter found 340,000 homes would be needed every year in England to keep pace with the ageing and growing population.

Some Tories are deeply concerned that their party has abandoned home ownership. English homes are now among the least affordable in Europe.

Former housing secretary Simon Clarke MP tweeted this month: "To refuse to build homes is to leave all but the most fortunate of the next generation without a realistic route to home ownership."

Brandon Lewis, another former housing secretary, said his party risked losing "a generation of voters."

Labour says if they win power, they would reinstate national housing targets at a level of 1.5 million over five years including council housing - and look again at land designated as green belt.

It's part of a number of proposed reforms including an end to no-fault evictions for renters, something the Conservatives have repeatedly promised but found hard to deliver.

No government has built 300,000 homes a year since the 1970s. A committee of MPs has said it would currently be impossible, due to a shortage of construction workers. Net zero homes also have a higher up-front cost.

Housing is everyone's problem, but either party will need huge political will to tackle it.

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