A report commissioned by Family Building Society has been published today (June 5) by the London School of Economics which outlines steps that can be taken to create a more coherent and consistent approach to housing policy.
The report draws on the success and failures of previous government reviews into the housing sector and concludes that overall, the government’s housing policy today is not fit for purpose.
Two of the core reasons for this hinge on the fact that there are “too many decision makers” and that the right number of homes in the right locations are not being built.
“The greatest failure is not giving housing the status it deserves. The minister for housing should hold one of the great offices of state, alongside the Treasury, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and the Home Office,” Boggard said at the launch of the report.
“It is shocking that the revolving ministerial door has witnessed 15 housing ministers, none a Secretary of State, come and go since 2010, which is bonkers,” he added.
The report also found that a large number of well-meaning initiatives are too heavily concentrated on demand rather than ensuring a stable long-term supply of housing.
This, coupled with macroeconomic instability means that as a result higher prices are often the outcome rather than more investment.
“Fifty odd years of stop-start housing initiatives, policies and reports have failed to deliver,” Boggard added.
“We need real leadership and a coherent, integrated, long-term housing policy. We need to align the key players, including the Bank of England, the Treasury and the Department of Work & Pensions as well as the Department of Levelling Up and Housing and local authorities to ensure government-wide commitment.”
Broken policies
In Boggard’s view, housing policy is currently “broken” and long-term housing policy must go beyond simply building more houses.
“It must be about the quality, use and of the whole stock, including support for landlords, and the circumstances of all households including reforming stamp duty which disincentivises moving,” he said.
The report looked back on previous reviews into housing policy to see what worked and what did not.
This included:
- two reviews undertaken by the departments then responsible for housing:
- the Housing Policy Review (1977)
- Fixing Our Broken Housing Market (2017);
- three reviews undertaken in the early 2000s by independent experts, commissioned variously by the Treasury and the department then responsible for housing:
