Pressure rises to tackle housing crisis in Budget

Aaron Morby 13 years ago
Share

Pressure is mounting on the coalition Government to sweep in a raft of measures to stimulate house building in next week’s Budget.

A new report from the Institute of Public Policy Research has warned England faces a shortfall of 750,000 homes by 2025, even if house building rates returned to the historic average.

And business bosses at the CBI is also due to call tomorrow for the Government to stimulate housing in its eagerly anticipated Budget for growth.

Labour has also called on Chancellor George Osborne to repeat last year’s £2bn bank bonus tax to support jobs and growth.

Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls said: “The government could use £1.2bn of this cash to help build 25,000 new homes which would create more than 20,000 jobs and several times more in the supply chain.”

It could also create 1,500 new construction apprenticeships.

Using the government’s own projections for household growth and assuming housing supply recovers to the 20-year average of 160,000 new homes a year, England will still have 750,000 fewer homes than it needs, according to the ippr research.

That’s equivalent to the entire housing demand of Birmingham, Liverpool and Newcastle.

Researchers estimate that annual build rates must skyrocket to more than 280,000 homes a year to meet demand. But last year the industry managed to build just 102,830 new homes.

Worst supply and demand mismatches will be in London, the South East, East of England and Yorkshire and Humberside.

In these regions demand is projected to be substantially higher than net additions to the housing stock in recent years.

In fact, the North West of England is the only region where supply could meet demand, with 40,000 extra homes compared to the number of households, due to the high rate of unoccupied premises at present.

    Mind the gap

    • London faces a housing gap of 325,000 homes
    • Yorkshire and Humberside faces a housing gap of 151,000 homes
    • East of England faces a housing gap of 132,000 homes
    • South East of England faces a housing gap of 77,000 homes
    • East Midlands faces a housing gap of 66,000 homes
    • West Midlands faces a housing gap of 28,000 homes
    • North East of England faces a housing gap of 16,000 homes
    • South West of England faces a housing gap of 7,000 homes.

The report shows that the social housing sector in particular will be under extreme pressure, no matter how the economy performs in future.

If the economy performs poorly, up to 1.2m households will priced out of the private sector and will need social housing.

Even under good economic circumstances, an additional 550,000 households will need social housing by 2025.

The report warns that without a new housing policy, this demand will not be met.

There are currently around 4.5m people waiting for social housing -1.8m households, equivalent to 8 % of all English households.

Last year’s Spending Review saw the housing budget cut from £8.4bn over the previous three-year period to £4.4bn over the next four years.

Nick Pearce, ippr director said: “We can’t go on as we have done. Britain needs to build more homes.

“That’s not going to happen without a fundamental review of housing policy. This new analysis shows the serious scale of the problem.

He added: “If the rate of house building doesn’t radically increase, we face a growing housing crisis. Whether the economy performs well or poorly, a serious gap looms between housing supply and demand.

“Our ageing population and rising expectations for living standards are going to drive up demand but if there’s no change in housing policy it will seriously hold back supply.”

Latest news

Approved change to concrete ‘recipe’ to slash carbon emissions

New approved concrete mixes will be able to blend finely ground limestone and fly ash
11 hours ago

Network Rail unveils Cardiff South Central masterplan

Plans being drawn up for major housing-led mixed-use scheme
56 mins ago

National Grid £12.8bn HV civils framework hits market

Firms needed for major power line links and high voltage direct current converter stations
12 hours ago

McLaren Living to revamp Watford police station site

Developer to submit plans for a major mixed-use development
8 hours ago

P.P O’Connor blows down four iconic cooling towers – video

Fiddlers Ferry Power Station regeneration gets off with a bang
12 hours ago

Worker injured at £300m offshore wind factory site

Accident on major Teesside construction site
13 hours ago

8Build bags Cambridge office and labs scheme

Firm wins phase 2 of The Press biotech development
12 hours ago

Cash boost to accelerate Transpennine Route Upgrade work

Government commits £3.9bn for latest phase of rail upgrade
12 hours ago

Further fines after fatal fall on office conversion

£600,000 CDM fine after death while installing lightning protection system
13 hours ago

Lonsdale went down owing £65m to supply chain

More than 600 firms owed money as reduced credit rating sinks M&E giant
4 days ago

Wates only bidder for £80m Cardiff estate rebuild

Council contacted 20 framework firms but received only one bid for 295-home Channel View estate rebuild
4 days ago

£21m legal battle over flawed concrete at Salford flats job

Developer in compensation battle with Arcadis after new concrete core demolished
3 days ago

Abu Dhabi developer Aldar Properties buys London Square

UAE giant swoops on resi specialist in vote of confidence for London market
4 days ago

Hunt for delivery partner to revive New Hospital Programme

Programme delivery partner to get £600m fee to get plans back on track
4 days ago

Green light for new £780m Essex garden village

3,700 homes and four new schools to be built at Dunton Hills
4 days ago

Laing O’Rourke makes a £288m loss

Rampant inflation on fixed-price jobs and problem contracts blow hole in accounts
5 days ago

Keltbray, OCU and Clancy clinch £1bn electricity network upgrade

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks awards biggest ever deals for central southern England
5 days ago

G&T enlisted for commercial review of HS2 main civils contracts

Phase 1 Main Works Civils Contracts to come under cost scrutiny
4 days ago

TClarke order books doubles to top £1bn for first time

M&E specialist on track to exceed £500m turnover this year
5 days ago

Wates signs Government safety remediation pact

Private builder belatedly signs fire safety developer remediation contract
5 days ago

Liverpool all-electric industrial park approved

McLaren and Caddick in chase for Sefton 800,000 sq ft Atlantic Park scheme
5 days ago

Former Buckingham Group MD to join John F Hunt

Simon Hyams is new Managing Director for Contracting
5 days ago

Three in race for retendered £150m A9 dualling job

Bidders take another look after client takes on more risk
6 days ago

Clancy tops £300m revenue in fifth year of growth

Civils contractor delivers £13.5m pre-tax from water and energy sector work
5 days ago

Tower crane collapses on Edinburgh resi site

Jib falls onto apartment block under construction: Video
6 days ago

Salboy drops office space from Viadux Phase Two

Developer to focus on Manchester residential towers of 76 and 23 storeys
6 days ago

Warwick Uni plan for science and engineering campus

370,000 sq ft science and engineering precinct submitted for planning
6 days ago

Morgan Sindall chalks up Greater Manchester schools treble

Bury, Stockport and Wythenshawe school jobs will create 1,600 pupil places
5 days ago

Plans in for £65m Blackpool multiversity campus

Council leads plan for Talbot Gateway learning campus
6 days ago

Laing O’Rourke wins first phase of £700m Oxford R&D district

Landmark Red Hall and two labs to be built in phase 1a of Oxford North scheme
1 week ago

Contractor services