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Reversing social housing losses should take priority on housebuilding, experts tell Lords

Negative amounts of social housing are being built and reversing this trend should take precedence over arguments about precise housebuilding numbers, peers have heard.

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Toby Lloyd speaking at the Built Environment Committee session (picture: Parliament.tv)
Toby Lloyd speaking at the Built Environment Committee session (picture: Parliament.tv)
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Negative amounts of social housing are being built and reversing this trend should take precedence over arguments about precise housebuilding numbers, peers have heard #UKhousing

Witnesses at a hearing of the new House of Lords Built Environment Committee on meeting the UK’s housing need said that more social housing should be built and stressed that people value its security of tenure over the unpredictability of the private sector.

Toby Lloyd, chair of the No Place Left Behind Commission and former advisor to Theresa May during her time at Downing Street, said: “Average house prices are eight times average household income so we need non-market homes.

“Shelter has called for 173,000 over two years, which is about 30% of the 300,000 a year [planned by the government] and a reasonable benchmark.”

But he warned that in England “we are building negative social housing, losing 17,000 homes a year”, with losses though Right to Buy and redevelopments.

He added: “At the moment it’s negative and even zero would be an improvement.”


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Mr Lloyd said the negative supply of social housing “revealed the preference of the government in running down supply”.

“There is huge demand or need – call it what you like – for social housing and we are just not meeting it,” he said.

Witnesses generally agreed that 90,000 new social rent homes a year, put forward by the National Housing Federation and other sector organisations, was a reasonable target.

Anna Minton, a reader in the School of Architecture at the University of East London, said the loss of social housing had led to rapid growth in the private sector even though this is few people’s first choice of tenure.

Ms Minton told peers: “The demand balance for different tenures depends on affordability and availability.

“Owner-occupation is unaffordable for most under-45s – unless they have help from mum and dad – and there is virtually no chance of accessing social housing unless you are a family in priority need.

“Just under 20% of all households are in private rent in London and that doubled from 1995 to 2019. Many people would not choose to be in private rent and find it difficult to leave.”

But Ian Fletcher, director of policy at the British Property Federation, argued that demand for new homes should be divided up by demography rather than tenure, which he said in a year would give 66,000 homes for single people, 54,000 for couples, 177,000 for families and 63,000 for retirees.

Alex Morton, head of policy at thinktank the Centre for Policy Studies, said debates on housing should drop the idea that it would be possible to increase supply so much that house prices fall.

“We have to move away from the idea the private sector will build enough for prices to fall,” he said.

That view was echoed by Mr Lloyd, who said: “Why would any sensible business damage its bottom line in that way?”

The committee is taking evidence for a report due later this year.

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