We
need to build 250,000 new homes every year, probably for the next 20 or 30
years, if we are to address the housing crisis properly. The last Labour
Government did not build enough homes. The present Government are building even
fewer.
If
we are to build sufficient homes, it has to be through all-party agreement,
because the construction industry cannot be turned on and off like a tap. And
we need to train and keep construction workers to build those homes.
There
is no single silver bullet; we need a range of different measures. We
need the volume house builders to build more. In 2007, there were more than
5,000 firms building between one and 10 houses a year. Now, there are fewer
than 3,000 such firms.
We
must encourage and nurture self-building initiatives of the sort that have made
a significant contribution in other European countries like Holland.
But
we also need to build houses for social rent. There are people who not only
cannot afford to buy, but cannot afford market rents. Since 2010, there has
been a 60% cut in the funding for social housing. Some, if not all, of it will
have to be restored if we are to build sufficient social homes in the future.
The
Government’s right to buy policy envisages a one-for-one replacement. But,
there’s no point selling a family home and replacing it with a one-bedroom
flat. Like-for-like replacement is what is needed. If there is an acute
shortage of social housing in some areas the right to buy should be restricted.
We have to ensure that development is on
brown-field sites first. Why is the proportion of houses built on brown-field
sites declining? But, we must also be honest
with people. Even if we build on all the available brown-field sites, we will
still have to build on some green-field sites in this country. So, we need to
sign up local communities to recognise and accept some green-field, sustainable
development.
Over
the past 30 years we have had a collective failure to build sufficient homes in
this country. We need some collective agreement across the political parties
about how we do build those homes over the next 20 or 30 years.
