For the PM and leader of the opposition to argue about housing during Question Time is welcome. At long last a difficult question is receiving attention across the political divide at the highest level. The government decision to delay the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill so it can bring forward new proposals in due course says Lee Rowley, housing minister is important. Once again the government has returned to the cross-roads to decide in which direction the solution lies.
Straight ahead one sign says, ‘Tinker with the Bill. Re-assure Theresa Villiers MP and the 50 rebels. Do nothing new. A general election looms’. It is the easy, most appealing option.
There is also a sign pointing right. It says ‘Leave local areas to decide what development they need locally. Remove housing targets’. There is a snag. MP, former levelling up secretary Simon Clarke has spotted it. He says the Villiers amendments will be ‘economically and socially …….disastrous;’ and warns the amendments are politically insane. He says the collapsing Conservative vote in the capital, London is partly due to unaffordable rents and prices for homes. I would suggest the nation’s economic growth and productivity are also consequences of decades of regulatory housing supply barriers.
There is one other sign. It points left and says ‘ 40 years housing policy failure. Change course. Be radical. Conservatives and Labour, by the next election to produce a joint housing supply manifesto.’ Hey! This is crazy. Or not? What is their common ground? Probably far more than most people acknowledge. Both parties can then also identify the policies where they do not agree because they are identify contentious issues.
Here are some aspirations I suggest are already shared across much of Westminster and could form the basis of a new, joint manifesto:
- There is a shortage of new homes, to rent and to buy in the market sector and the social sector. It is agreed this failure is due to past short term based, politically divisive housing policies.
- The objective is to make new home rents and prices affordable within 20 years in all areas in England. It is recognised this means local plans must contain housing land supply policies that look 60 years ahead, to 2085.
- By 2045 the test of affordability in each area is that open market house prices do not exceed 3x local salary/wage levels.
- Areas protected from development by statute will never be built on, unless there is 50% + support for a policy change in a local referendum.
- The shared general election joint manifesto commitments will be binding on local Conservative and Labour candidates in all local elections.
Ian Campbell
26 November 2022
