IEA: Housing White Paper fails to tackle root cause of Britain's broken housing market

Commenting on the Government's White Paper on housing released today, Mark Littlewood, Director General at the Institute of Economic Affairs, said:

“Despite being well-intentioned, many of the initiatives put forward are fiddly and fail to address the main cause of Britain's broken housing market: a lack of supply.

"Forcing councils to set aside land for new homes is largely meaningless if developers can't build on it because of our restrictive planning laws. And initiatives encouraging pensioners to downsize are a red herring - many don't downsize simply because there is a lack of suitable alternatives.

"Unfortunately, the Government has shied away from liberalising the planning system, despite this being by far the best way to bring down housing costs. Even freeing up a small percentage of greenbelt land would make a huge difference to supply. It is a shame to see this opportunity to reform the housing market fall by the wayside, at the expense of those trying to get onto the housing ladder, and the millions in rental accommodation. It seems politics has once again trumped sensible economics."