England needs to fast track its new home numbers

London: England needs to build 312,000 homes a year for the next five years to keep up with expected growth in the number of households, according to research that underlines the depth of the housing crisis.

The need would be even more severe if not for the trend of younger adults delaying setting up home for themselves because of the expense, said the Town and Country Planning Association, which carried out the study. This rate of house building would address the shortfall in construction since 2011, but is almost half as much again as the government’s target of a million homes by 2020, “which itself is seen by most commentators as unobtainable”, the researchers said.

In the longer term, the country needs to build 220,000 homes a year until 2031, almost double the current number, to keep up with the increase in households, said the TCPA. Some 55 per cent of these would need to be in London and the surrounding area.

Even with this steep acceleration in building, couples aged 25 to 34 would find it more difficult to live in their own homes in 2031 than their counterparts in 2011. The figures take into account government projections for growth in the number of households, based on population data from 2012. The previous figures, based on 2008 data, projected even higher need — 244,000 homes a year — but reflected conditions before the economic downturn.

The latest figures reflect a fall in the rate of household formation that results in part from the shortage of homes and rising housing costs. However, the number of households in England is still predicted to rise by a quarter to 27.5 million by 2037.

“Decades of failure to build enough genuinely affordable homes has left today’s young adults with little choice but to remain in their childhood bedrooms, or trapped in expensive and unstable private renting,” said Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, the housing charity.

Kate Henderson, chief executive of the TCPA, said: “The government needs to see this as a wake-up call. It has already fallen behind on targets for house building, and this is now having a devastating effect on young people.”

The Conservative government elected in May is aiming to address the shortage through its housing and planning bill, published last month, which among other measures includes construction of “starter homes” to be sold at a discount to market rates. But there is scepticism about whether these measures go far enough.

“The government has taken steps to boost house building, but the new housing and planning bill is very much focused on home ownership,” said Gavin Smart, deputy chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing. “What we need is a long-term, joined-up strategy to get more homes of all tenures built — for home ownership, shared ownership, private rent and social rent.”

Financial Times