Your location: Building more homes
This content applies to England only.
The ultimate solution to England’s housing crisis is to build more homes, and in 2007 the Government made a historic political commitment to do just that.[1]
The right kinds of homes need to be built in the right places - and need to be sold at the right prices. It’s also critical that new developments provide the necessary services and infrastructure to create thriving communities, and are built to high environmental standards, to ensure we do not repeat the mistakes of the 1960s and '70s.
Why more homes are needed
Supply of new homes is failing to keep pace with demand
England is currently suffering from a huge housing shortage, especially in terms of social rented housing. This shortage is due to the fact that low rates of house building over several decades have failed to keep up with increasing demand for housing.
Demand for housing has risen due to a number of trends, such as:
- greater numbers of single person households
- a population who are living for longer
- increased levels of net immigration
- an increasing number of people buying second homes, to let out or as a holiday property.
The current crisis
With new housing supply failing to keep pace with rising demand, private sector housing costs have been rising rapidly, sparking an affordability crisis. Many people have found themselves priced out of buying or renting a home. This problem is particularly acute for young people on low salaries who are unable to get a foot on the property ladder or even afford their rent. In London and the South East a massive shortage of affordable housing means that many public service workers cannot currently afford to live there, putting vital local services into question.
- In 2007, almost 100,000 households were found to be homeless by local authorities in England. [2]
- At the beginning of April 2007, there were nearly 1.7 million households on Local Authority housing waiting lists in England. [3]
- At the end of December 2007, there were 79,500 homeless households living in temporary accommodation in England. [4]
- There are more than half a million households living in overcrowded conditions in England. [5]
England’s housing situation has reached crisis proportions. We desperately need more homes now.
Delivering the homes and communities people want
It’s critical that the new homes benefit new and existing communities. This means building the right kind of homes, in the right places, that can be offered to households at the right price. At present, there is a shortage of decent, family-sized accommodation. It’s also vital that a significant proportion of new housing is affordable, including social housing for rent.
Most affordable and social rented housing is provided through planning agreements between local councils and private developers, where permission to build is granted on the agreement that a percentage of the new homes are affordable, including social housing for rent. But, at present, these agreements are not always enforced, or commit to building too few affordable homes, meaning that the number of affordable homes delivered is often lower than it should be.
Shelter understands that new homes must be desirable places to live. We want to avoid repeating mistakes of the 1960s and 1970s where the quality of housing developments was sometimes sacrificed in a drive to build homes quickly. New developments must include the necessary supporting infrastructure and services to create thriving communities. New developments should also be built to high environmental standards.
Three million new homes by 2020
In 2007, following Shelter's successful campaign for more homes, the Government committed to a target of building three million new homes by 2020. We also support the Government’s commitment as part of this to increase the number of social rented homes built to 45,000 per year in 2010/11, with an aspiration to reach 50,000 per year during the next Comprehensive Spending Review period.[6]
Shelter is now campaigning at local, regional and national levels to ensure these vital homes are delivered and that the new homes are an appropriate mix of low-cost homes, property for private sale, and social rented housing. It is critical that a significant proportion of these new properties are homes suitable for families. Shelter has also called on the Government to prioritise affordable house building and to improve the use of planning agreements to ensure the necessary levels of social housing are built.
Campaign demands
We call on local and regional authorities, housebuilders, housing associations, the Homes and Communities Agency and the Government to work together to maximise the homes built and to:
- prioritise affordable housing building
- set ambitious targets for the number of social homes to be built between 2011 and 2020
- ensure enough family-sized accommodation is built
- improve enforcement of planning agreements to deliver affordable and social housing.
[1] Homes for the Future: More Affordable, More Sustainable, CLG, 2007
[2] Statutory Homelessness Statistics, Communities and Local Government 2008.
[3] Housing Strategy Statistical Appendix Data 2007, Communities and Local Government, 2008.
[4] Statutory homelessness statistics, Communities and Local Government, 2008.
[5] Survey of English Housing Preliminary Results 2006/07, Communities and Local Government, 2007.
[6] Homes for the Future: More Affordable, More Sustainable, CLG, 2007
