There are few policy areas that expose the inequity in this country more than housing. There are 3.3 million homes that don’t meet the Decent Homes Standard. More than 150,000 children are living in temporary accommodation. Living in such conditions can seriously impact the health, wellbeing, and life chances of these households.
Conservative politicians allowed developers to lead the agenda; refused to help those forced out of their homes by no-fault evictions; and seriously delayed improvements of new homes’ environmental standards to tackle the climate emergency. The resulting housing crisis has hit too many. The Liberal Democrats were reassured to see three Bills in the King’s Speech focused on housing. However, we were concerned by Labour’s top-down target of constructing 1.5 million homes over this Parliament – an approach which fails to recognise where the need for housing arises and underestimates the structural challenges in succeeding over this timeline.
We agree that new homes are needed, but they must be the right homes, in the right place, at the right time.
My own constituency of Mid Dorset and North Poole is typical of a community in the south-west, with high house prices, low wages, and significant environmental challenges. Buying a home – and in some cases even private rental – is out of reach for many young people.
Our demographic imbalance, with a population already older than the national average, is only worsening. New homes built here are often executive properties marketed to established households in the London commuter belt, rather than small homes designed to help local families move into their first property. Those searching for second homes – attracted by the West Country’s famous market towns and stunning coastline – only exacerbate this issue, driving prices up and up. I’ve proudly backed Liberal Democrat calls to move holiday lets and second homes into different categories of planning use, so local councils can act when enough is enough.
I was also pleased that our calls to review “Right to Buy” were recognised in the budget. By reducing the available discount, Rachel Reeves took a welcome step toward stopping the steady drip of social homes into the private housing market. However, the government must go further – empowering councils to remove discounts altogether and retain much-needed properties in public ownership for future generations. Crucially, we have to reverse, not just freeze, the flow of homes out of the social housing stock. We must build 150,000 social homes every year if we are to eliminate homelessness and restore affordability, potentially funded by the £130 billion capital infrastructure budget we have outlined.
And attending to details – like the nitty-gritty of land law, pedestrian as it may sound – is just as important as these headline figures. Reforming the Land Compensation Act would mean investment in social housing actually equals homes getting built. Currently, so-called ‘hope value’ is pushing up the price of land – meaning it changes hands based on what it might be worth, while commitments to building social housing fall by the wayside. Tightening the rules around how land is recompensed would give communities a far better chance of finally seeing affordable homes.
This article first appeared in our Spotlight Housing supplement, published on 29 November 2024.
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