In a lecture given in memory of Sir Frederic J Osborn and published in a paper entitled 'The challenge of the housing crisis', MP Nick Raynsford lays out the challenges facing the housing sector.
‘We have a hopelessly inadequate supply of housing, chronic affordability problems, rising homelessness, a serious backlog of poor conditions and inefficient energy performance, and a legacy of social segregation to tackle. Few commentators would disagree with most of this analysis, nor deny the extent to which housing in Britain today is in crisis. But while there will be widespread agreement about the extent of most of the problems, there is no agreement about solutions,’ he said.
Raynsford believes that the current government's response centred around demand side solutions like the mortgage Help to Buy scheme, incentives and planning reform have not led to the necessary changes for a more functional house building model. He says that three years of upheaval in the planning system has resulted in fewer, not more consents for new housing.
He also calls for a gradual and socially just rebalancing in housing benefit expenditure against that spent on housing delivery, stating that the UK is currently spending £25 billion on housing subsidies, but with £23 billion on Housing Benefit and a little under £2 billion on supporting social and affordable house building.
‘The process of rebalancing national housing expenditure in favour of investment is neither simple nor quick. Rapidly withdrawing or reducing Housing Benefit from those people who depend on it would be a recipe for evictions and homelessness. But that is not to say that a start cannot be made,’ he explained.
He also wants to see a sensible, but realistic expansion of the private rented sector and argues that delivering more and better housing is not an either/or question of new settlements versus urban regeneration, but that both are needed.
‘We urgently need a new vision for housing and the development of new communities. Current policies are clearly failing, and a different approach is urgently called for. That new vision has to ensure a substantial increase in the supply of new homes, and has equally to ensure that the new supply is affordable,’ he says.
‘At the same time we must focus on building successful new communities, whether as part of urban regeneration or through new settlements. The agenda should be about high-quality, well designed and environmentally progressive developments that are popular and which meet wider social and economic objectives. This commitment to quality can, I believe, help over time to overcome the fierce opposition which new housing development proposals too often attract,’ he explains.
‘All of this requires a confident planning system that understands society's needs but also works to make possible good new developments that will prove sustainable and attractive in the long term. Never more than today do we require brave planners who understand their responsibilities and society's aspirations, and who work to ensure that the two come together to create an expanded house building programme and a commitment to sustainable communities,’ he adds.
