Rishi Sunak wants to have a grown up conversation about building on the Green Belt. Framing it in this way means that anyone disagreeing with him is not being grown up. Actually we agree, and that the good intentions should start close by.

We would suggest that to show commitment they should start building on the following green field sites…

All these properties belong to Tory peers and MPs who would of course jump at the chance to provide land to help alleviate a ‘crisis’ and to demonstrate serious intent to deal with this.

But is building new houses the only solution, and are the right houses being built?

Empty homes

The Big Issue has reported that in 2022 there were 257,331 empty homes. If the purpose of this proposal was to make more accomodation available then utilising these properties would be an obvious priority. Of course if the point is to create an opportunity for Tory housebuilder chums to make more money then this route must be avoided at all costs.

Building the wrong houses

It is apparent that the government is focused on new builds as the only avenue to providing more accommodation from a recent report which contains no mention of other strategies such as bringing empty houses back into use. So the ‘grown up’ conversation has already been slanted towards the outcome they want.

there is little interest in dealing with the actual housing need and plenty to do with satisfying the needs of house builders

Is there actually a barrier to the supply of suitable land for house building? House builders like green field sites for house building. It’s uncomplicated, they strip off the top soil and sell it for £60 a tonne and don’t have to worry about any existing pipes or cables. In addition they will build larger more expensive houses that will get a premium for the ruralish location and get more profit for less work. Affordable housing in urban locations is less attractive to a developer, however it is one of the most urgently required. By the report there needs to be 243,000 new builds per year, with a need for 145,000 affordable homes per year. In 2021-22 there were an additional 216,490 dwellings. While this report does not bother to include the number of affordable homes, 22% of the total was built by housing associations and local government so it can be surmised that 46,628 affordable homes were built. This falls very short of 145,000 per year that is required. It is evident that there is little interest in dealing with the actual housing need and plenty to do with satisfying the needs of house builders.

image from Rochdale Online

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