Housing Market: Build, Build, Build

Two numbers sum up one of the biggest problems in Britain today. They are: 240,000 and 108,190. The first – 240,000 – is the rough forecast for how many new homes are needed each year to meet demand; while 108,190 is the actual number of new homes added in England in the last financial year. That shortfall swells and falls, but is always there – and it accounts for the country's housing crisis.  The housing shortfall is one of the largest drivers of the last boom and it mainly explains why prices are still going up in the neo-boomlet economy of London and the south east. It will not be alleviated to any meaningful degree by the extension of the Help-to-Buy programme. Help to Buy will not increase housing supply by anything like as much as a directed building programme. There is a dire need for more public housing and there are also high unemployment and low interest rates. These are surely all the ingredients for central and local government to start building the homes of the future. Instead, we have another bubble in the making.  Read more on the Guardian website.