by Admin
Successive Governments have failed to ensure housing supply matches demand.
Though the problem has only recently captured widespread media and political attention, it has been clear for some time that housing supply is not keeping up with the additional demand generated by rising life expectancy, immigration and the growing number of one-person households.
Estimates put the need for additional housing in England at between 232,000 to 300,000 new units per year. This is a level last reached in the 1970s and the present annual supply of new housing is only running at about 100,000 units per year.
The number of new households each year has exceeded the number of homes built in every year since 2008, and the gap has grown in recent years
The gap between supply and demand started back in 1975 when local authorities stopped building homes in large numbers in 1975. It was about this time that non-profit making housing associations took over responsibility for building new social housing. They do so principally using central government subsidies together with private finance.
Figures suggest that the number of social houses built by non-profit making housing associations has barely increased since 1975 and failed to fill the gap caused by the withdrawal of local authorities from the social housing supply chain.
One consequence of this is the growth of private sector housing where there are now more households renting privately in England than there are in social housing.
The resultant house price inflation in areas of high demand suggests that by 2020 home ownership will be an ‘impossible dream’ for those not already on the ladder. Declining affordability would suggest that, for many, that dream is already impossible.
Headline from 2013 – Nothing has changed!!
In the short term the UK needs to build more homes. In the future, any housing strategy must address both supply and demand. Immigration is a major part of housing demand (around 45%) and unless net migration is reduced to a manageable and sustainable level, a large house building programme of around 300,000 homes per year, will have to continue indefinitely and incur all the costs and loss of amenities (‘Green Belt’) involved.
The British Democrats have a policy of stopping immigration and reducing net migration which will immediately reduce housing demand to around 65% of present levels.
Other Party solutions non of which address the main problem – immigration
- Conservatives: extend the right to buy to housing associations and build 200,000 new starter homes Greens: provide 500,000 social rented homes.
- Labour: build at least 200,000 new homes a year by 2020
- Liberal democrats: build 300,000 homes a year and publish a long-term plan to set out how this will be achieved in the first year of the parliament.
- SNP: will support investment in a house-building target of 100,000 affordable homes per year in the UK.
- UKIP: build 1 million homes on brownfield sites by 2015
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John Shaw ( Party Official ) I know this is a shock , but if you actually stop and think about it and the mainstream Parties and their media will not , WE INDIGENOUS BRITISH HAVE A LARGE HOUSING SURPLUS , DUE TO OUR MUCH DECLINED BIRTHRATE ! If all the Africans , Asians and West Indians and their descendents ( here since the seventies ) together with all the Eastern Europeans , LEFT BRITAIN DUE TO THE WEATHER , BRITAIN WOULD HAVE A VERY LARGE HOUSING SURPLUS ! We could then DEMOLISH THE INNER CITY SLUMS and therefore RAISE THE GENERAL STANDARD FOR OUR PEOPLE , thus improving BRITAIN’S STANDARD OF LIFE !
My experience is not a positive one, regarding ”enrichment” of ones (former)beloved council home.
Social housing demand has rocketed because immigrants from the Third World are allocated so much of it…and that is the real and only reason for the ”housing crisis”
do they appreciate what they are given ? not in my experience, because it’s on silver platter for them, and they often tend to be fussy about what they want.
John Shaw ( Party Official ) It should be in our Hoax News section but the DORSET ECHO headline , that DORSET needs I3, OOO HOUSES BY 2033 IS AS LUDICROUS AS IT IS FALSE. NO ONE COULD POSSIBLY PREDICT THAT FAR AHEAD. However , with 10 ,000 Poles settling in the County PER MONTH , things are not looking good for the HOUSING CRISIS being SOLVED down here ! Ending E.U. SUPERSTATE CITIZENS right to settle here will help but this will not stop the ‘ COMMONWEALTH ( WE ARE AS BRITISH AS YOU ! ) People who have settled elsewhere . Our other PROBLEM is WHITE FLIGHT as decent People flee the Cities that have been OVER RUN ! The TRUTH is that lovely , little Dorset needs 250 THOUSAND HOUSES to be built EVERY YEAR UNTILL FURTHER NOTICE. EITHER THAT OR AN END TO MASS IMMIGRATION AND A START ON REPATRIATION.
John Shaw , With the indigenous population numbers falling for years , Britain should not have a Housing shortage ! In fact , with numbers falling each year , we should be in the happy position of just improving the housing stock in a situation of less demand ! Due to MASS IMMIGRATION , the opposite is the case. The Country is being overloaded as people from round the WORLD poor in and nothing emphasises the whole SORRY MESS than the Horrific fire in Kensington. Whilst feeling very sorry for the people living in those horrible flats and certainly wishing they had not suffered such a terrible event , I could not help but notice the type of People they were. It was like the United Nations there ! People had come from all over the World to live there and when all is said and done , BRITAIN CAN NOT AFFORD IT !
John Shaw , Happy Official Birthday , your Majesty and well done for getting the right tone regarding the awful tower block fire , with a minutes silence at the Annual ‘ Trooping of the Colour’ ceremony , much loved by millions. Also by visiting the area , winning People over to a calmer attitude in , let’s face it , a Multi-Cultural Hell Hole where the Police fear to tread !
John Shaw , In contrast to the sheer DECENCY exhibited by Her Majesty , the Churches and others , the NASTY LABOUR PARTY have been , as usual , NASTY. Seeing an opportunity to cause trouble and motivate ‘ their immigrants ‘ and lefty thugs , you would have been forgiven for thinking that the Prime Minister supplied and fitted the external cladding and insulation to the flats , HERSELF ! So , Jeremy Corbyn , if you want to go Political over this tragedy , here we go ! How much per year does it COST the Poll Tax Payers of Kensington and Chelsea to RUN THAT BLOCK OF FLATS ? With NEARLY EVERYONE living there coming from ALL OVER THE WORLD and all receiving HOUSING BENEFIT , POLL TAX RELIEF and everything else! Having seen and heard these People , continually on all news channels , I note that they all clearly had a BAD ATTITUDE , before the fire , to all forms of AUTHORITY , like the Police and also the COUNCIL , who have done so much for them . STILL want to make it Political Jeremy ?
John Shaw , I hope People read all the Housing articles and comments. They really have been proved to be accurate . The dreadful fire at the Kensington Tower block of flats is developing into a massive and prolonged Political Row REGARDING HOUSING AND SOON , IMMIGRATION AND HOW MUCH THESE PEOPLE COST US !