Brexit Means We Need Fewer Houses - Or Does It?

It is an obvious claim, already made by some newspapers opposed to building in the countryside: if we are leaving the EU, there will be fewer migrants, and so we can build fewer new houses. In the latest edition of the 2017 UK Housing Review – just published by the Chartered Institute of Housing – we have looked at whether such a claim stacks up. Demand for housing depends mainly on household growth. The latest projections for England were made before last June’s referendum. They suggested that we need to build 227,000 homes a year up to 2024, with a lower target after that. Of the total, 37% – or 84,000 a year – results from migration. Read more on the CML website.