Govt's 'scattergun' housing policies have caused a crisis

In its 58-page white paper, Solving the UK’s Housing Shortage, specialist property finance marketplace Brickflow has called on the government and politicians across all parties to work together to develop a proper framework for addressing the housing crisis.

It has also set out a 10-stage plan as the blueprint for that framework. It also urged the government "crucially, stop this revolving door of housing ministers".

The housing crisis in this country is a huge white elephant.Ian Humphreys, Brickflow

The report said: "[Labour leader] Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to build the ‘next generation’ of new towns and 1.5mn new homes as part of ‘a decade of renewal under Labour’.

"Ahead of what will be a key political battleground in the lead up to the election, the recommendations in our ‘Solving the UK’s Housing Shortage’ white paper, will finally give politicians a comprehensive framework for addressing the housing crisis, which the government itself has failed to produce."

Brickflow founder and chief executive Ian Humphreys, said: “The housing crisis in this country is a huge white elephant; we all know it exists and everyone appears keen to address it, yet no one has a clear strategy on how to do so.

"This is not surprising, given the mountain of government rhetoric, professing to identify the key issues and suggest solutions, yet often without consideration for the impact these may have on other parts of the housebuilding chain."

Potted history

The report revealed that while 4.75mn homes are needed across the UK (4.3mn in England), only 0.2 per cent of land in England is vacant to build on.

It said: "Since July this year, 58 local authorities have suspended their development plans, which illustrates why such a framework is so vital to getting Britain building again."

In 2004 Kate Barker wrote her Review of housing in the UK, in which the lack of new building was highlighted. At the time, she called for 200,000 homes to be built a year.

But there was still a shortage in supply of housing even in 2022, as reported by FTAdviser.

The market has not yet recovered from the effects of the credit crisis in 2008 to 2009 and again in 2009 to 2010, when there were significant year-on-year slumps in houses built.

As Brickflow's white paper indicated, the House of Lords's Built Environment Committee's meeting housing demand report 2021/22, said one in four people will be over 65 by 2050, up from 19 per cent in 2019.

Increased longevity, a rising population, higher levels of immigration and a more fractured family environment - with grandparents and parents often divorced or living apart, means there is a much greater need for housing.

Indeed, the BCM called for new homes to comprise a mix of mainstream and specialist housing for later living to accommodate the needs of people in later life. 

In the 2021 Spending Review, as reported by FTAdviser, the government committed to investing nearly £24bn in the housing sector, up to 2025/26. 

But while some effort has been made since 2013 to redress the balance, with pledges and new developments going up, advisers such as Martin Stewart, founder of London Money, believe not enough has been done.

He told FTAdviser: "We have had 11 housing ministers since 2010, so there has never been anyone in situ long enough to build up the momentum needed needed to fix a fundamental problem in the UK.

"That problem is a dysfunctional housing market that does not have enough homes and those that we do have are too expensive. £24bn here, £24bn there and before you know it we're talking about real money."

The report highlighted, for example, that the planning system is in crisis, with spending on planning falling 14.6 per cent between 2009 and 2019, while the average time between local authorities publishing a plan through to adoption has risen 81 per cent over that time.

Stewart responded in agreement with some of the core findings in the white paper, namely to "Build more, create more social housing, limit property ownership, implement better planning, and change the culture that a house is an investment.

"But there's nothing new there - it's just that the government isn't doing it", Stewart added. 

The 10 steps forward

Brickflow's paper was developed with input from 12 industry specialists from across the private sector, including Knight Frank and PwC, taking into account hundreds of pages of government policy related to housebuilding.

The team also "garnered opinion from those at the coalface of the process".

The white paper criticised the government for its "scattergun approach to reducing the housing deficit", and highlighted both the various political successes and "abysmal failures".

Brickflow has therefore created a 10-step framework to improve housing in the UK: 

• Increase planning department funding now - allocate more funding to planning departments, and rather than consulting further on whether to increase planning application fees, do it now.
• Provide greater household projection clarity - introducing a methodology that enables them to identify housing requirements and adhere to the soon-to-be-introduced local plan timetable.    
• Introduce a database for all public sector land - including local authority and national government-owned. Identify what can be used for brownfield housing and audit green belt land, reclassifying low-quality so-called ‘grey belt’ areas, as suitable for housing. 
• Focus use of the infrastructure levy on supporting local communities and infrastructure. Contributions must benefit the local communities where house building occurs.
• Improve government and private-sector funding for developers - many government-backed schemes are short-lived, lack scale and longevity and can be challenging to apply for. 
• Implement a robust energy and water infrastructure strategy.
• Increase buyer affordability by bringing back Help to Buy - or a similar scheme that improves affordability metrics. Changing the National Planning Policy Framework to improve buildout rates will only work if buyers can afford the homes being built.
• Build market confidence in modern methods of constructure - use MMC to build council and housing association properties where a mortgage isn’t necessary.
• Invest in technology to facilitate more building, buying and selling - give housebuilders the training and tools they need to retrofit homes and meet the Future Homes Standard.
• Adopt a culture of collaboration and action - government ministers or representatives from all parties must meet with housing sector stakeholders to address the issues identified in this white paper and move forward with practical rather than theoretical solutions.

Humphreys added: “The housing market is in a catastrophic state and we need to act now.

"This is why we’ve endeavoured to present a clear, comprehensive document that covers the key issues across all parts of the property sector, sharing insights from leaders who through their own experience, have helped us develop a practical rather than theoretical framework.”

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