香港六合彩

At the first UK general election debate between the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and the leader of the opposition, Keir Starmer, Sunak claimed his government had 鈥渄elivered 1 million new homes鈥�.

On Tuesday, June 11 2024, Sunak doubled down on this claim, during his speech to launch the听. Underlining his party鈥檚 plan to 鈥渂uild an ownership society鈥� 鈥� a 鈥減roperty-owning democracy鈥� 鈥� he further pledged to deliver another 1.6 million homes over the next parliament.

The Conservative manifesto follows suit, emphasising home ownership, with little attention paid to affordable housing and renting. This comes against the backdrop of councils across England rehousing homeless families听听from their support networks, citing a dire lack of affordable homes.

The question then is to what extent the Conservatives鈥� proposals address the housing crisis and whether their track record backs up claims of their achievements to date.

According to government听听on net additional dwellings (which shows all new homes, including new builds and conversions), between the last general election in December 2019 and April 2023 (which is as recent as the data goes), 935,200 homes appear to have been added. The total since Sunak took office probably now exceeds 1 million net additional dwellings.

Other government data on听听shows only 675,590 new homes completed over the same 2019-23 period. The mismatched tally is partly due to the different ways the data was collected.

It is also because 鈥渘et additional dwellings鈥� refers to more than just new-build homes. It includes housing created through change of use (such as offices converted to housing) and conversions (such as subdividing an existing house into flats) and lots of potential dwellings that are developed but then not used as permanent homes 鈥� such as short-term lets and student accommodation.

This raises the question of what counts as a new home.

The second question is whether the government can truthfully claim to have 鈥渄elivered鈥� these new homes.

Still, more听听shows that 鈥減rivate enterprise鈥� has delivered 81% of new housing between 2019-23 (with the rest from housing associations and local authorities). Even the government鈥檚 Homes England agency says that it听, instead, it helps others to do this.

Some elements of government policy may well have helped to facilitate this housing, but other elements have not. Reforms in recent years have actually seen more low- quality housing be developed.

鲍苍诲别谤听听deregulation, it has become easier to convert听听use. My colleagues and I have shown how this has led to听. The potential health and wellbeing implications for residents can then translate into听.

The biggest question is whether this level of new housing supply is enough.

The Conservatives have often said they will build 300,000 new homes across England per year. This would have meant about 1.35 million homes under the current government 鈥� not just 1 million apparently delivered. Sunak has admitted as much, saying in a recent interview that it has actually听听under his government. This might explain why the manifesto promises to deliver 1.6 million homes over the next parliament.

Quite what is enough though, in terms of housing supply, is听听than is often claimed. That is because the housing crisis is multifaceted.

Headline figures across England ignore significant variation from region to region. In some places, such as London, there is a large shortfall of homes, compared with need, in some places. But this is not the case everywhere.

罢丑颈蝉听听of the housing crisis is overlooked. Research from Ireland even shows that increasing housing supply can be associated with听.

Some housing scholars听听that the housing crisis is more accurately described as one of听. The current Conservative government has certainly failed to make enough homes available听.

Government data on new-build housing completions overlooks the many ways local authorities are starting to听directly provide housing again. However, the fact that most authorities across the country now prioritise increasing affordable housing shows how pressing the crisis is.

Recent government reforms have tended simply to increase the profits of听. They have not focused on making housing more affordable.

This is only reinforced by the strong emphasis the manifesto places on home ownership. The Conservatives promise to relax stamp duty for first-time home buyers and implement a new Help to Buy scheme, while maintaining green-belt protections.

This is likely to increase demand but not supply. It is unlikely to improve housing affordability. Certainly, the previous iteration of Help to Buy actually seems to have听.

Elsewhere, the manifesto simply promises to continue the existing Affordable Homes Programme (through which Homes England and the mayor of London support affordable housing provision by providing grant funding to housing associations and local authorities). This is important funding. But it has failed to deliver anything like the amount of genuinely affordable housing needed.听听identifies a need for 145,000 new affordable homes each year but in 2022-23 only 63,605 such homes were delivered in England.

More social homes were听听due to Right to Buy. In continuing this scheme and enforcing restrictions on how local authorities can use the income from it, the government has been听听local authority aspirations to build more social housing.

Of further concern is the manifesto鈥檚 promise to remove EU rules preventing pollution from new house-building projects. But without听, more homes will lead to more sewage ending up in more rivers.

People need good quality, affordable housing. And they need it to be built in the right places. The current government鈥檚 record on this can only be described as poor. The 2024 manifesto offers little hope that a future Conservative government will do better.

This article originally appeared in 听on 12听June听2024.

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