BSA: ‘UK must have a housing ministry’

In an eight-page document, Housing at the Heart of Government: A Manifesto for Change, the BSA warned: “We have failed to build sufficient property in Britain for decades to keep up with demand. In England alone in recent years we have seen some of the lowest house building rates since 1923.”

The BSA warned governments had been happy to stoke demand rather than addressing the underlying limits on supply, and claimed pressure on housing would only increase.

The mutual claimed that there had only been 109,000 completions in England in 2013 – one of the lowest house building rates since 1923 – and that there were backlogs in available council homes.

The mutual also warned of high rental costs, with the average monthly rent standing at £595 in England and £1,300 in London, and noted that planning and development departments in local authorities had experienced substantial budget cuts.

To tackle the housing crisis, the BSA has called for the establishment of a housing ministry, with a secretary of state appointed to the Cabinet, and a cross-party 15-year plan based on such factors as national and regional demographic changes, environmental concerns and house price inflation.

The BSA suggested that pensioner bonds could be used to help fund housebuilding, and demanded the removal of borrowing caps on local authorities to allow them to build homes.

Last year, Paul Smee, director general of the Council for Mortgage Lenders, called on the government to do more, saying: “If we were looking for those responsible for housing policy to reach into their own toolbox to tackle the underlying need to narrow the gap between people who need homes and the number of homes, we would see them up a ladder, trowel and mortar in hand, shouldering a hod full of bricks.”

Source: BSA

Adviser view

Simon Webster, managing director of Kent-based Facts & Figures Chartered Financial Planners, said: “These are all laudible ambitions, but can the country afford them?”