We previously sounded the alarm that a subtle amendment to the Housing and Planning Bill allows the Secretary of State to force the sale of a much broader range of council homes than before to fund the expansion of Right to Buy to housing association tenants.
Our brand new analysis shows that to raise the estimated £4.5bn a year needed to fund the generous discounts that make Right to Buy work, the average council could be hit with an annual … Read more
The Housing and Planning Bill is making its way through the House of Lords and yesterday, attention turned to the thorny question of Starter Homes. During the debate, our hot-off-the-press finding that up to 80% of young private renting households will not be able to afford a Starter Home in London was contrasted with government claims that up to 47% will. So what’s behind these very different pictures? The government is yet to publish the methods and assumptions behind its … Read more
At Shelter we have tried to estimate the impact that the some of the Government’s housing policies might have on genuinely affordable homes in the future, which will affect the 1.4 million households waiting to be housed in the social rented sector. It is challenging to predict the impact of such far-reaching policies, but by looking at both present circumstances and what has happened in the past, we have been able to estimate the effect of three policies which we … Read more
At Shelter we’ve been critical of the government’s new “Starter Homes” policy, re-announced by David Cameron in his conference speech yesterday. As a reminder, this is the policy to swap low rent housing out of all new developments and in its place build homes sold at 80% of market prices. There’s a cap at £250,000 for homes sold in England and £450,000 for London.
We do want to see better options for people on low and typical incomes, who want … Read more
The last Parliament saw housing rise rapidly up the political agenda. As a result, there is now a firm political consensus on the need to address the shortage of homes in England. This includes a genuine desire across government to get more homes built, which is very welcome.
The next big question, which will define housing in this Parliament, is homes for who? Who are we building for?
On this question, the government has made a much less auspicious start. … Read more
One million new homes. That’s today’s big housing number, courtesy of housing minister Brandon Lewis. In response to new figures showing that we failed to build even half as many homes as we needed in the last five years, he said that success would look like building one million new homes this Parliament.
We agree: achieving this would be a start, although it’s still short of the 250,000 homes needed each year – and the Minister has since clarified that … Read more
This morning we published new research on the impact of the government’s proposal to force councils to sell their more valuable social homes. Many of the government’s housing reforms are welcome – but on the affordable housing side of things, some are fairly worrying. This is certainly one of those.
The numbers are pretty grim. 113,000 affordable homes could be lost in exactly the areas of the country they’re most needed.
Recent history, and the financing of the scheme, … Read more
Three months ago, in the run up to the general election, David Cameron announced housing as one of the Conservatives six campaign priorities. It followed years of rising anxiety among voters about the issue. In that speech the Prime Minister promised voters he would “build more homes that people can afford”. A month later, as you can see below, he stood on the steps of Downing Street, pledging that the next five years would in part be about “the homes … Read more
As we regularly write about on this blog, housing looks like being a major issue at a general election for the first time in a generation. It’s now consistently a top 5 issue for voters, with even secure homeowners worried about where their children are going to live.
After decades of inaction from successive governments, it finally seems Westminster is starting to catch up with public concern. But if they are to win over an increasingly cynical public all parties … Read more
Today is the launch of the Levelling Up White Paper. And the chance for a new approach by the government and beyond on how we think about housing policy.
The White Paper contains a promise to build more social housing and rebalance the rights of renters. The government has set the goal, though perhaps not the tools that will get us to it. These we need fast as it comes the same day we hear that house prices have surged … Read more
Today, Savills has published a report commissioned by Shelter on the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis on our struggling housing system.
The analysis is grimly familiar. The disruption of lockdown plus a hit on confidence will see supply and house prices falter and cause private developers to pull back from building while the storm passes. Because lots of social housing is delivered via developer contributions, we expect to see truly affordable housing supply fall too. If the worst happens, … Read more
On 12 December, the United Kingdom will go to the polls in a general election for the third time in four years. One thing, however, is abundantly clear – that whoever the next government is, they will need to take radical steps to tackle our national housing emergency.
For the 1.1 million households on council waiting lists, the 277,000 people who are homeless in England, and the millions of families trapped in insecure private rentals, action can’t come soon enough.… Read more