To understand the government’s urgency, here are some numbers that outline the depth of the housing crisis. Nearly 160,000 children are living in temporary accommodation. More than 6,000 families with children are living in B&Bs. Councils in England spent over £1bn on housing homeless families in temporary accommodation – a 50% rise year-on-year. And 1.3 millionpeople are languishing on social housing waiting lists.
Private rents have continued to rise, surging past inflation to set by 9.2% in England – in London it was 11.2%, the fastest annual pace since records began in 2006. And according to the ONS, only the richest 10% of households can afford to buy an average-priced home in England, making housing stock nationwide unaffordable. House prices hit a record high this week, according to Halifax.
Nearly a million children in the UK are at risk of falling into poverty or will face financial hardship as a result of rising rents, shortfalls in government housing support and underinvestment in new social housing by March 2026, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research.
This crisis has been years in the making. Will the government’s ambitions be enough, and will they follow through with bold enough change?
What is the government proposing?
Big investment. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, already pledged to invest £500m for 5,000 affordable homes during the autumn budgets. The overall programme is worth £11.5bn and is expected to result in up to 130,000 new affordable homes by 2026.
‘Bulldoze through planning laws’. It’s all about tearing up the rulebook and building more than ever before. To kickstart building, the government is proposing designating low quality green belt land as “grey belt”, which would open up more land for development. They are also planning on releasing stringent individual targets for councils and planning authorities and Reeves has recently proposed a “zoning scheme”, which would hand housebuilders quicker access to build new homes around England’s commuter train stations.
Building 12 new towns. Starmer announced on Wednesday that up to a dozen new towns will be constructed by the next election, each with the potential for at least 10,000 homes with accompanying infrastructure. The government plans to push this through by sweeping away environmental regulations and red tape.
The obstacles
Many observers are still sceptical about the government’s 1.5m goal. Streamlining planning rules may not be enough. Many other factors, from interest rates and market incentives, are also important. The head of Britain’s largest housebuilding company, Barratt Redrow, told the Guardian there is a severe skills shortage, an ageing workforce (a quarter of tradespeople are over 50) and complications from Brexit that make building housing difficult. So even if there are fewer rules standing in the way of building, the construction sector may not be in the position to buy up land and get building.
Ripping up all the rules might be a bad idea. Finding space to build all these new houses is not easy and often they are constructed in less than perfect locations. Most worryingly, more than 100,000 new homes will be built on the highest-risk flood zones in England in the next five years, according to Guardian analysis.
Substandard housing stock. Building new houses is important but many housing campaigners stress the urgency of addressing inadequate or poor quality housing that people are living in now. The government is delaying the implementation of Awaab’s law, which would make social landlords in England fix dangerous hazards quickly. These landlords now have until 2027 before they have to start fixing all dangerous hazards, including asbestos, exposure to lead or radiation and contaminated water supplies.
Is it enough?
One report indicated that England would require the construction of at least 90,000 social rent homes annually for a decade to eliminate social housing waiting lists. And analysis by the BBC suggests that some local councils in England would need to see at least a fivefold increase in new housing to meet government targets – but many cash-strapped councils face bankruptcy over the next five years.
Fiona Fletcher-Smith, chief executive of L&Q, one of the UK’s largest housing associations, told the BBC that the money is welcome – but it also “won’t touch the sides”.
