Within days of becoming Prime Minister, Gordon Brown made a long-term commitment to build three million homes by 2020 and backed this up with direct investment of over £8billion in new affordable homes between 2008 and 2011. It was a watershed moment that gave hope to the 1.6 million households stuck on lengthy council house waiting lists and to potential first-time buyers trying to get a foot on the housing ladder. Families throughout the country could feel rest assured that they could one day have a 'safe home' that they could call their own.
Fast-forward 18 months and that promise looks like a distant memory. With the current recession taking a merciless grip on the nation, we are faced with rocketing numbers of repossessions, rising council house waiting lists, tens of thousands trapped in temporary accommodation and would-be first-time buyers being forced to put plans on hold. With unemployment at an all-time high and homeowners struggling to pay their housing costs, public services have found themselves in a position of permanent fire-fighting to meet the demands of people who have been hit hard by the downturn.
With the current recession taking a merciless grip on the nation, we are faced with rocketing numbers of repossessions and rising council house waiting lists.
Housing associations, themselves affected by the lack of available finance, have been unable to kick-start developments because they cannot borrow cash. And the private house building sector has all but shut up shop in the last year, throwing tens of thousands out of work. As thousands of construction workers face the dole queue, it's fair to say the future of house building looks bleak.
If ministers don't act now to save the industry, it could take ten years for house building in Britain to recover, sentencing this country to decades of housing decline. In the long term, the three million new homes target will remain a distant dream and millions of families will be condemned to the misery of overcrowding, homelessness or sacrificing their family needs in a desperate effort to get onto the housing ladder. The result will also bring the inevitable repetition of boom and bust that has caused the very problems we are grappling with now.
What is needed now is an ambitious programme of investment in affordable housing. This would not only ensure the continuing supply of new homes, but would also prop up a house building industry that is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, and take advantage of now depressed land and building prices. Moreover, if the government was willing to relax the restrictions on local authority borrowing against the value of existing housing stock, a ready source of money could be easily available.
Every day at Shelter we see the depressing reality of the government's failure to respond to the housing crisis. Every day, more and more people facing the threat of repossession or in a desperate search for a house get in touch with us, seeking help and advice. Ruthless lenders seeking to repossess homes, coupled with sky-high fuel and housing costs, has made it impossible for families and individuals to aspire to having a safe, sound and permanent home.
In tough times, we need a 'new deal for housing' to deliver these much needed homes. The recession has created a different environment that needs a new approach, and the government must take decisive leadership now in order to ensure that we build sufficient numbers of homes over the long term to meet the housing need, which is growing at an alarming rate.
Previous/Next
Return to contents