His Conservative government has signaled it won’t be obsessed with building homes. That’s fine, but Britain still needs more affordable housing.
For a week that ended with a crowd-pleasing speech from the Conservative Party leader but little new policy substance, there was one notable exception. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government seems to have done a U-turn on its controversial “once in a generation” reforms to Britain’s house-building plan announced in August 2020. Whatever comes from the policy rethink will have implications both for Britain’s housing market and possibly the Tories’ political fortunes.
For years, successive British governments have pledged to address the housing problem principally by building more homes. The implicit assumption was that a crisis in affordability that leaves so many priced out of the housing market — one of Europe’s most expensive — stems largely from a shortage of supply. Johnson too promised to build more.
Driving up the housing stock, however, proved to be like running on sand. Communities in desirable areas didn’t want green spaces developed, transport crowded or their doctor’s offices stretched by newcomers. Builders blamed planners for blocking progress, though an oligopoly of big builders are themselves criticized for buying up land and sitting on permissions without completing development.