New targets have been announced by Housing Minister Brandon Lewis to build a million new homes by 2020…
Efforts to tackle the housing crisis over the past four years have fallen short. Of the new homes required in England only 47 per cent have been built. The National Housing Federation estimated 974,000 new homes were needed between 2011 and 2014 to meet demand. However, only 457,490 properties were completed.
National Housing Federation’s Director of Policy and External Affairs Gill Payne said: “In some areas, there is a drastic shortage causing prices to soar, putting homes out of the reach of many people.
“Families and young people across the country are crying out for genuinely affordable homes so they can put roots down and achieve their dreams of owning a home.
“Skyrocketing rents and ballooning house prices are eating up more and more of people’s wages and forcing people out of their local communities or into smaller, lower quality housing.
“We haven’t built enough homes in this country for decades, and if the gap between the number of households forming and the number of new homes being built continues to grow, we are in danger of not being able to house our children.”
Some of the reasons for this failure to build more include difficulties with the planning process. This saw the government implement changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) in 2012 to make the procedure easier. This saw the number of planning applications given detailed permission increase from 158,000 in 2011 to 240,000 in 2014.
However, this led to criticism that it was easier for “inappropriate and unwanted” developments to take place. Critics also argued a low number of applications could have been caused by the 2008 financial crash, which caused the figures to rise again once the economy picked up.
Other issues include the shortage of skilled workers. This is increasingly becoming an issue within the sector.
Lewis said: “Ultimately, it is up to local authorities to look at what their housing needs are and where they feel it is appropriate to build.
“I trust local people to get that right.”
Given the difficulties meeting current building targets this new figure seems overly ambitious. Whether the government can pull this off remains to be seen, but unless fundamental issues are addressed it seems unlikely the sector will be able to meet this number.