“Yes To New Homes” – Time To Cure the Housing Deficit Disease

The ugly truth is that we have not been building enough houses to cope with our growing population. We need something like 250,000 new homes a year, yet we are barely building more than 100,000.  It is unrealistic to expect the private sector to boost its production by 150,000 dwellings a year in the short term, and it has never built much more than 200,000 houses a year.  One obvious solution the government currently chooses to ignore is to boost house building by local councils. By allowing councils to borrow to invest, this could increase house building by more than 15,000 dwellings a year. This will be 15,000 households a year that would not otherwise be living in decent housing. They will also be built quickly. Private sector developers are sitting on planning permissions for 400,000 houses, something the public never sector would never do. Read more on the Liberal Democrat Voice website.

Time to Take the Politics Out Of Housing

The systematic failure to deliver housing brings the planning system into disrepute. Housing is not a gamble on future prosperity like High Speed 2. It is the fundamental building block of social welfare. Decent homes underpin our wellbeing and reduce other social costs. The problem we face with housing is that there is huge mismatch between the expectations of communities and the demands of developers. It’s a problem that will never be resolved until we take the politics out of housing numbers. That’s why I think it is time to establish an Office of Housing Responsibility (OHR). Modelled on the Office for Budget Responsibility, the OHR will lift the assessment of housing need above the squabbles of local and national politics.  Read more on the LibDem Voice website.