Promote home ownership by reserving 50% of new-build homes for UK residents, urges report by Conservative MP

Wednesday, 13 December 2017 00:01

A new report by Croydon South MP Chris Philp, published by the Centre for Policy Studies, proposes further reform of the planning system to increase home building and the promotion of home ownership.

With the average first time buyer having to save for 10 years to put together a deposit and home ownership rates falling among the young, the report – ‘Homes for Everyone’ – sets out detailed proposals for how to push housebuilding up towards the Government’s target of 300,000 a year, and ensure these new homes end up with first-time buyers.

The report, published as part of the Centre for Policy Studies’ ‘New Generation’ initiative, also features new research setting out the historic under-supply of homes in the UK across regions, and makes the economic and social case for home ownership.

Chris Philp MP will be discussing his findings with Graham Brady MP at the report’s launch at 11am on Wednesday 13 December, in Committee Room 10 of the Houses of Parliament. Tickets can be booked via Eventbrite.

The reports headline findings include:

The gap between the number of new homes we need and the number being built each year now stands at 76,000 a year, an improvement on the figure of around 150,000 under Labour. Of these, some 40,000 per year are in London and another 10,000 each in the East and South-East.
The cumulative housing shortage since 2000 has reached 343,000 in London and 96,000 in the South-East.
Over a 25-year period, a home owner will end up between £100,000 and £300,000 richer than a renter. Owning is more beneficial than renting even if you assume zero real house price growth and sky-high investment returns on the money that would have been used for a deposit.
In London, the number of housing starts has gone backwards under Sadiq Khan. There is also evidence that an increasing proportion of those homes that are being built are ending up in the hands of foreign buyers – and not just in the prime areas of Central London.

While welcoming the Government’s work and progress, including the Chancellor’s recent stamp duty cuts for first time buyers, the report makes a series of proposals for speeding up the planning system and tilting its outcomes towards first time buyers.

These include the merger of the Community Infrastructure Levy and Section 106 requirement for developments under 100 homes; the removal of the affordable housing requirement for developments under 20 units; “Pink Zones” in which development will be automatically approved within certain parameters; fast-track planning approval and dispute resolution; speeding up the disposal of public land; strengthening the Government’s ability to act on housing issues; and promoting “staircasing” agreements by which renters can gradually buy their homes over a period of years, at the initial price.

The report also proposes that we follow other developed economies, such as Switzerland, Australia, Canada and Denmark, in favouring domestic first time buyers - primarily by restricting to 50% the proportion of new-build developments over 20 units that can be purchased by people who are not UK-tax resident.

Chris Philp MP said:

“The Government has taken huge steps to increase homebuilding from the low of 125,000 a year left behind by Labour to nearly 200,000 today. But more needs to be done. We need to place home ownership at the front of the policy agenda and make sure that first time buyers get all the support possible to get onto the housing ladder.”

Robert Colvile, Director of the Centre for Policy Studies, said:

“Housing is the biggest domestic policy challenge we face – one that is blighting the lives of a generation of young people. This new report by Chris Philp contains many ideas that deserve serious consideration if we are to make home ownership the norm for young people.”

Chris Philp MP is available for interview and written pieces based on his report, or the housing market more generally.

NOTES:

‘New Generation’ is the Centre for Policy Studies’ flagship programme, promoting fresh policy ideas from MPs from the 2015 and 2017 parliamentary intakes, among other new voices. This is the second in the series, which will also feature Rishi Sunak MP, Suella Fernandes MP, Bim Afolami MP, Luke Graham MP and others.
Chris Philp has been Conservative MP for Croydon South since 2015. He has served as a member of the Treasury Select Committee and was on both the Housing and Planning Bill Committee and the Neighbourhood Planning Bill Committee. He graduated from Oxford in 1998 with a 1^st in Physics. Since then he founded and ran businesses in distribution, finance and property. His first business was floated on the stock market in 2004.