Briefing: Missed opportunity - Changes to public investment in housing

By: Adam van Lohuizen
Published: July 2015

Briefing: Missed opportunity - Changes to public investment in housing - Shelter England

In the early 1980s, Great Britain had a strong public house building program that delivered thousands of homes for those that needed them most. But, since then, government investment in housing dropped and the housing benefit bill has gradually increased, with more and more people joining the waiting list for social housing.

Our analysis suggests that, if public investment in housing had been maintained, we could have built 1 million more homes than we actually did. This would have taken pressure off the housing benefit bill, which has increased significantly over the same period.