• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

A Social Democratic Future

Policy paths towards equality and efficiency

  • Home
  • Investing in productive infrastructure
  • Wider Housing Ends
  • 2018 Housing Policy
  • Consultation Responses
  • News
  • Economic Policy

Is there a housing shortage?

21st November 2017 by newtjoh

The issue is one of the deficient supply of affordable housing: a problem concentrated in London and other high cost areas, but still present elsewhere.  And, although new net supply  increased to 217,000 in 2016-17, that figure is likely to prove  a peak and still below projected demographic growth levels, leaving aside the impact of the supply backlog that has built up since the GFC.  Recent supply totals comprise mainly homes built at prices way beyond the means of first time buyers with even less than upper quartile earnings in some areas, let alone average or below average earnings.  The private housing market is broken, suffering from multiple housing and land market failures. That has significant and  extensive deleterious macro-economic, as well as social, impacts, noted and highlighted by FT commentators, such as Martin Wolf and Chris Giles, to name just a couple. It  needs to be replaced by a partnership model where 70,000-100000 dwellings are provided for either affordable rent or discounted home ownership terms accessible to those that cannot purchase. Deflating the cost of land directly should be an essential ingredient of such a partnership model, and would help to reduce its public expenditure cost.  Insisting on at least 40% of all dwellings provided on new developments (beyond a minimum size) to be affordable as a mandatory, certain and transparent requirement would serve to reduce land costs; that change could be backed by changes in the compulsory purchase rules allowing public authorities to compulsorily purchase land at existing use values as a last resort in order to provide affordable demonstrably needed in their local areas.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: 2018 Housing Policy

Primary Sidebar

Pages

  • Consultation Responses
  • Economic Policy
  • Home
  • Investing in productive infrastructure
  • Wider Housing Ends

Recent Posts

  • Response to DLUHC Consultation on Compulsory Purchase Compensation July 2022
  • December 2021 Kolkata
  • Pathways to London inclusive housing affordability
  • Johnson’s Social Care Plan: social democratic opportunity?
  • Starmer’s Story Must Be Labour’s Story

Categories

  • 2018 Housing Policy
  • Brexit
  • Consultation Responses
  • Covid
  • Economic policy
  • Health
  • Health Policy
  • Housing
  • India
  • Macro-economic policy
  • Social Care
  • Time for a Social Democratic Surge
  • Welfare State and social policy

Footer

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Copyright © 2022 · News Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.