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Government Helping People Buy Rather than Building New Homes, Warns Report
This article is an external press release originally published on the Landlord News website, which has now been migrated to the Just Landlords blog.
The Government is spending more money on helping people buy their own houses, rather than building new homes that the country desperately needs, according to a new report from housing charity Shelter.
Government Helping People Buy Rather than Building New Homes, Warns Report
Around 65% (£28.7 billion) of the £44.75 billion available to private developers from the Government is for helping people buy their own homes, compared to the £16.05 billion (35%) set aside for actually building new homes, found the study.
Shelter believes that this disparity in spending is pushing up house prices. It has called on Theresa May’s new Government to put more resources into housebuilding.
The Senior Policy Officer at Shelter, Pete Jeffreys, says: “Too much taxpayer money is going into schemes that risk pushing house prices up, even further out of reach for ordinary families, instead of getting new homes built.
“Rather than repeat the mistakes of the past and prop up a market which hasn’t delivered, this Government has the chance to face things head on and put in place measures that will not only stimulate housebuilding, but boost the economy as well.”
Jeffreys adds that the country must see significant reform of the housebuilding sector to build the homes that are needed to reach the Government’s target of one million new homes by 2020. Former Prime Minister David Cameron made the pledge back in September last year.
Shelter has calculated how much of the Government’s money is being spent on the demand side of the property market, through schemes such as Help to Buy and the Lifetime ISA.
On the supply side, schemes such as Rent to Buy, the Home Building Fund and New Homes Bonus are going towards building new homes.
The report, Achieving the ambition: Building one million homes this Parliament, concludes that strong reform and investment is necessary for the Government to achieve its 2020 goal.
“Nothing less will successfully overcome the structural weaknesses of our housebuilding system,” insists the charity.
A full list of the schemes included in the analysis is below, specifying whether they focus on supply or demand.
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