Unafford able housing in England: the crisis in housing production

摘要

These four major reports on housing have all found it difficult to get traction in the media and in public debate, and recent political polling reveals that the housing crisis is not a significant issue in the 2015 election (although 17 per cent of voters under 22 recognise it as a major concern). The Chancellor's Autumn Statement was remarkable chiefly for its proposals to shrink the role of the state in relation to the gross domestic product to its smallest size since the 1930s, and its housing proposals were predictably piecemeal. Any prospect of a coherent approach to resolving the housing crisis is missing from all the major political parties, as the Labour party leadership underplayed its own Lyons Review. The TCPA's recent manifesto for Rebuilding Britain: Planning for a Better Future links the current crisis in housing and planning to the need for a fairer social division of resources and the necessity of a more sustainable future. It is remarkable for its fully-justified assertion that 'we are not a poor nation but we are badly organised', and that our disconnected politics prevents us from taking the necessary steps towards a positive approach to national development.