Young people, their faces pressed against an estate agent’s window, gaze at all the lovely homes they’ll never, ever be able to buy. That’s the image the communities minister Sajid Javid conjured up while unveiling the government’s long-awaited housing white paper week.
This snapshot of young housebuyers’ despair was meant to symbolise a broken housing market where, on average, house prices are nearly eight times average salaries. ‘If we don’t act now,’ the communities minister said, ‘a whole generation could be left behind’.
So what did the government propose in its white paper for England, initially intended for publication late last year and then in January 2017? More importantly, will this housing finance reform white paper actually make a difference to the number of affordable new homes available to buy? Let’s take a closer look.
Years of neglect by successive governments
The housing crisis, according to ministers, goes back many years and is largely due to the failure of previous governments to build a sufficient number of new homes. To fix this, the government proposes a number of new measures. These include:
- speeding up the time taken between planning permission being granted and homes being completed
- encouraging small housebuilders, through funding, to have a greater influence in the housing market
- giving local councils more powers to incentivise new house-building
- prioritising the building of new homes where they are needed most
- releasing surplus public land for new house-building
In the meantime, conditions for those in private-rented accommodation will be improved, such as ensuring more longer-term tenancies are available.
Action on a local level
Central government is putting a number of its ambitions in the hands of local government. So, local authorities will be allowed to increase planning fees by 20 per cent. Some £25 million in additional funding will be offered to authorities who are in the areas of greatest need. And local authorities will have to produce a ‘realistic’ housing plan every five years.
The government also said there was a suspicion that some house-builders were buying up land then sitting on it in the knowledge that property prices would rise, an accusation house-builders categorically deny. Nevertheless, to combat this possibility, local councils will have more powers to implement compulsory purchase orders on sites where building has stalled. These local authority measures are in addition to the previously announced expansion of Right to Buy for social housing.
The green belt
Many commentators thought it was possible the government would open up some areas of green belt land to new housing. However, there was an unequivocal statement that green belt land would be protected. Interestingly, it was reported earlier that the UK risks a ‘huge backlash’ by Middle England if green belt land was seen to be under threat.
High density housing
More high density housing will be encouraged in urban areas even if the term, high-density housing, as the government itself says, conjures up images of undesirable tower blocks. The government argues that, as has already been seen in some parts of London, building upwards as well as building (even) smaller properties can still result in attractive, well-designed homes people are happy to live in. This, in turn, is part of the government’s desire to build new homes where they are needed most.
So will these policies allow our young people to do more than wishful window shopping or is this white paper nothing more than window dressing? To date, the reaction from many in the housing industry suggests they see this white paper as something of a disappointment. Many believe it will take radical measures to tackle our severe housing problem, and this housing white paper is not the game-changing document they were hoping to see. Nevertheless, the government appears to be hoping it can achieve radical change without having to introduce radical policies. It may be that these proposals go some way to fix a housing market that, hopefully, isn’t broken beyond repair.
Keith Osborne is Editor of WhatHouse?
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