Housing Need, Delivery And The Political Dimension To House Building In The Uk

By Author: Bradley Weiss
Total Articles: 272
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Since the publication of the Barker Review in 2004 successive UK Governments have agreed that around 245,000 homes need to be built each year to meet the country’s housing needs. In 1977 314,090 new homes were built in the UK. Two years later that figure was down to 251,820 and since then there has not been a single year where house building completions in the UK have reached 245,000. During the 1980s the average annual completion rate stood at 217,314; by the 2000s it was down to 191,332. Last year the UK housing industry built 140,930 new homes.



This long-term undersupply has manifested itself into what we are now calling a ‘housing crisis’ leaving many working people with longer commuter times, smaller homes than they desire, high levels of housing debt or excluded from home ownership altogether. The average home in England now costs 8 times the average wage. In a country with high economic ambitions we need to deliver greater housing choice at more affordable levels.



But if house builders have a product which is in huge demand then why do they not just go out and ...
... build more? Is the town planning system preventing them from doing so?



To be fair to the Coalition Government they have presided over a significant overhaul of the planning system in England with publication of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) in 2012. They have also sought to reduce the barriers to accessing housing finance with the introduction of the ‘Help to Buy’ scheme.



Most planners I speak with agree that the NPPF has been an improvement to the planning system. It puts ‘sustainable development’ at the forefront of planning decisions and establishes a ‘pro-development’ agenda to which the industry can respond. But frustrations still exist as a result of the application of the NPPF’s policies and how these policies can be used as a barrier to prevent housing developments, which could and should be built.



Much of the problem lies with local politics. New housing is the most contentious of all new development proposals. This is not because it is somehow less attractive than power stations or industrial estates but because it is typically sited next to existing homes. Irrespective of the fact that their own house stood on what was once a green field, many home owners are vehemently against proposals for new housing in their area. Local politicians know that this affects votes and, within this context, too many local authorities plan for ‘just enough’ new housing.



But this is where we need strong leadership and an honest, grown-up debate. In England just 1.1% of our land is occupied by housing. This is less than the total land occupied by golf clubs. In a country with a growing population and a dynamic labour market our housing supply seems to be driven (or constrained) by the ‘haves’ rather than the ‘have nots’.



There is also a strong economic argument for the building of more homes that I hope will start to become more readily used by all within the development sector. The Home Builders Federation and Nathanial Lichfield and Partners have recently published a paper titled ‘The Economic Footprint of UK House Building’. The paper calculates that increasing the number of housing completions from 140,000 per annum to 240,000 would create £1.1bn additional net capital expenditure, 430,000 extra jobs, increase economic output by £13.6bn and deliver both an additional £1.2bn of tax receipts and £432m of local infrastructure each year. For a country in need of new jobs and growth this seems to be a pretty compelling case for us to up our game when it comes to housing supply.



Read through the manifestos of the political parties for the forthcoming May elections. Most show a desire to increase the current levels of house building but lack the detail to say how they will do this. Lucent Group has itself produced an alternative manifesto, which gives some very clear ‘fixes’ to the planning system and UK land market which can be read here:



Lucent Group Manifesto: The Catalyst for Solving the UK's Housing Crisis



Whichever political party or coalition of parties makes up the next Government I hope they show the strength of leadership and political will to address the housing crisis. A good start would be to encourage a rational debate about the issues at hand. I am sure many in the housing sector will doubt that this will transpire but if we are able to have a difficult debate about Government spending cuts and deficit reduction then surely we can workthrough the changes needed to build the level of homes both current and future generations require.