Report looks at achieving a more coherent housing policy

A London School of Economics (LSE) report commissioned by Family Building Society, Achieving a more coherent and consistent approach to housing policy, sets out starkly the failure to create an integrated housing policy or to learn the lessons from earlier attempts from major housing reviews since the 1970s.

This follows on from the Why is housing policy such a mess? report published on 8 February 2023.

This expanded and detailed report highlights:

• there are too many decision makers
• housing policy is not fit for purpose
• the right number of homes in the right locations are not being built.

Mark Bogard, CEO of Family Building Society said: “The greatest failure is not giving housing the status it deserves. The Minister for Housing should hold one of the Great Offices of State, alongside the Treasury, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and the Home Office.

“It is shocking that the revolving ministerial door has witnessed 15 housing ministers, none a Secretary of State, come and go since 2010, which is bonkers".

Emeritus Professor of Housing Economics at the LSE, Christine Whitehead, who with Tony Crook from the University of Sheffield wrote the report commented: “Macro-economic stability must always take precedence over everything else.

“But it is absolutely necessary that decision makers take notice of the consequences to housing and develop policies to make the sector more robust.”