{"id":19743,"date":"2021-09-07T14:56:05","date_gmt":"2021-09-07T14:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cityfieldmarketing.com\/?p=19743"},"modified":"2022-01-24T10:25:17","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T06:25:17","slug":"tackling-the-under-supply-of-housing-in-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cityfieldmarketing.com\/tackling-the-under-supply-of-housing-in-england","title":{"rendered":"Tackling the under-supply of housing in England"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tackling the under-supply of housing in England<\/h3><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>
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Failing to meet housing need<\/h2>\n

Estimates have put the number of new homes needed in England at up to 345,000 per year, accounting for new household formation and a backlog of existing need for suitable housing. In 2019\/20, the total housing stock in England increased by around 244,000 homes. This around 1% higher than the year before \u2013 and the amount of new homes supplied annually has been growing for several years \u2013 but is still lower than estimated need.<\/p>\n

Housing need manifests itself in a variety of ways, such as increased levels of overcrowding, acute affordability issues, more young people living with their parents for longer periods, impaired labour mobility resulting in businesses finding it difficult to recruit and retain staff, and increased levels of homelessness.<\/p>\n

An ambition to achieve\u00a0300,000 homes a year<\/h2>\n

The 2015 Government set out an ambition to deliver\u00a01 million net additions<\/strong>\u00a0to the housing stock by the end of the Parliament, which was expected to be in 2020. Net additions include, for example, conversions and changes of use. Critics said that the figure did not take account of the backlog of housing need. The House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs concluded in\u00a0Building More Homes<\/a>\u00a0(2016), that the target \u201cwas not based on a robust analysis\u201d and went on to recommend that the housing crisis required the development of at least 300,000 new homes annually \u201cfor the foreseeable future.\u201d In addition to questioning whether a target of 1 million homes is ambitious enough, there was some doubt over whether the number was achievable.<\/p>\n

The Conservative Government elected in 2017 had a manifesto pledge to meet the 2015 commitment to deliver
\n1 million homes by the end of 2020\u00a0and\u00a0to\u00a0<\/strong>\u201c<\/strong>deliver half a million more by the end of 2022.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0The Autumn Budget 2017 set out an ambition \u201cto put England on track to deliver 300,000 new homes a year.\u201d In January 2018, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) was renamed the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to reflect a \u201crenewed focus to deliver more homes.\u201d The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) was\u00a0relaunched as Homes England<\/a>\u00a0on 11 January 2018:<\/p>\n

\nBy bringing together their existing planning expertise and new land buying powers, the new agency will play a major role in securing land in areas where people want to live, support smaller and more innovative house builders into the market and resource brownfield sites from across the country to deliver homes for families.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Conservative Government elected in December 2019 included a\u00a0manifesto<\/a>\u00a0pledge to\u00a0\u201ccontinue to increase the number of homes being built\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0and referred to a need to rebalance the housing market towards more home ownership:<\/p>\n

\n\u2026we will continue our progress towards our target of 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s. This will see us build at least a million more homes, of all tenures, over the next Parliament \u2013 in the areas\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No \u2018silver bullet\u2019 to increase housing supply<\/h2>\n

There is general consensus around the long-term under-supply housing and the need to address this, but there is less agreement within the industry about\u00a0how<\/em>\u00a0best to achieve the necessary step-change in supply. Commentators agree that there is no \u2018silver bullet\u2019 and call for a range of solutions across a number of policy areas.<\/p>\n

The 2015 Government took action to stimulate housing supply through a variety of schemes. These schemes are referred to in the Government\u2019s response to\u00a0Building More Homes<\/a>\u00a0which acknowledged that \u201cwe have much more to do as a country to build more homes and that the Government has a role to play in making sure our housing market works for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

An increased focus on affordability<\/h2>\n

The\u00a02017 UK Housing Review Briefing Paper\u00a0<\/a>(September 2017) argued that\u00a0while supply is of critical importance, \u201cso is the rather more neglected issue of<\/strong>\u00a0affordability, in both the private and social housing sectors.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the foreword to the June 2017 IPPR report,\u00a0What more can be done to build the homes we need?<\/a>\u00a0Sir Michael Lyons said: \u201cWe would stress that it is not just the number built but also the balance of tenures and affordability which need to be thought through for an effective housing strategy.\u201d
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is echoed in\u00a0research<\/a>\u00a0commissioned by the National Housing Federation (NHF) and Crisis from Heriot-Watt University, which identified a need for 340,000 homes each year to 2031 of which 145,000 \u201cmust be affordable homes\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Housing White Paper 2017 and subsequent developments<\/h2>\n

The 2015 Government\u2019s\u00a0Housing White Paper,\u00a0Fixing our broken housing market<\/a>\u00a0was published in February 2017. It set out \u201ca comprehensive package of reform to increase housing supply and halt the decline in housing affordability.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White Paper identified a threefold problem of \u201cnot enough local authorities planning for the homes they need; housebuilding that is simply too slow; and a construction industry that is too reliant on a small number of big players.\u201d The White Paper focused on four main areas:<\/p>\n