New Shelter report reveals ‘rigged’ system favours big developers
and land traders rather than families, as it sets out a new model
for building homes
The current system of housebuilding in England is failing
families by producing high-priced and poor-quality homes,
according to new report from housing charity Shelter.
Its new report shows that typical new homes built today are out
of reach for eight in ten (83%) working private renting families
across the country – even if they used the government’s Help to
Buy scheme. The West Midlands ranked as the worst hit region,
with a staggering 93% of families not able to afford to buy an
average-priced new home.
Alongside being unaffordable, many new build homes are also poor
quality. In research by Shelter and YouGov, half (51%) of new
home owners say they have experienced major problems with their
properties including issues with construction, unfinished
fittings and faults with utilities.
Today’s report warns the current system will never work for
ordinary families because it rewards developers and land owners
more interested in trading land at high prices than in building
homes. To put an end to this, the charity has
unveiled New Civic Housebuilding a new model of
housebuilding designed to deliver genuinely affordable,
high-quality homes.
The report comes shortly after the government described the
housing market as ‘broken’
and was critical of ‘fat-cat developers’ during the launch of its
housing White Paper.
, Shelter’s interim chief
executive, said: "Big developers and land traders
are making millions from a rigged system while families struggle
with huge renting costs and have to give up on owning a home of
their own, which has become nothing more than a pipe dream.
"For decades we’ve relied on this broken system and, despite the
sweeteners offered to developers to build the homes we need, it
simply hasn’t worked. The current way of building homes has had
its day and it has failed the nation.
"The only way to fix our ever-growing housing crisis is for the
government to champion a bold new approach which responds to
communities to build the genuinely affordable, beautiful homes
they want – as we have done as a country in the past. Until this
happens, millions of ordinary families across the country will
continue to pay the price."
Case study:
Helen, 30, and her daughter Lily-Mae, 4,
live near Manchester. Helen works full-time as a manager in a
hotel and is priced out of buying a home:
"Ownership is definitely not an option. Maybe it will be when I
hit my 40s but it’s out of sight now.
"I’m fortunate at the moment because I have a good landlord. But
there’s always the risk that you can get evicted for no reason
and have to start again. That happened to my family several years
ago and it caused a huge amount of stress.
"Everyone wants security, especially if you’ve got young
children. You need it just to get on with life and not have to
switch schools and things like that.
"There should definitely be more affordable housing for families
that is realistically within reach of working people on a normal
income. Something definitely needs to change."
ENDS
Notes to editors
What is New Civic Housebuilding?
Under the New Civic Housebuilding model, we can create a
large number of good-quality, affordable homes with
infrastructure that meets the needs of communities.
This model of housebuilding was used to deliver the
Georgian new towns of Edinburgh and Bath, the Edwardian Garden
Cities and the post-war New Towns.
Under New Civic Housebuilding land is brought into
development at lower price with strict conditions
attached. Clearer, and lower land costs mean
that:
-
Homes can be built more quickly and sold at lower
prices, while still returning reasonable profits to
developers.
-
Local communities can have real influence on how
new homes are built.
-
More can be spent on providing roads, schools and
infrastructure that communities need.
-
The full New Civic
Housebuilding report (download link)
-
The New Civic
Housebuilding manifesto,
laying out our agenda for change (download link)
