Affordability is the poor cousin of the housing crisis

COMMENT To tackle the housing crisis in the UK, we need to focus on addressing supply, quality and affordability. The supply of housing has been hogging the limelight for a while, with the much-vaunted (and never reached) figure of 300,000 new homes a year and a steady stream of people berating the planning system for getting in the way. And quality is something the New Homes Quality Board and the Office for Place are meant to take care of. But what about affordability, the poor cousin of the housing crisis? It’s time we raised the problem of affordability to promote quality of life for all, and not just those who can pay for it. In 2017, Sir Michael Lyons wrote that “it is not just the number built but also the balance of tenures and affordability which need to be thought through for an effective housing strategy”. And a House of Commons Research Briefing on tackling the under-supply of housing in England, published in early February, noted that there has been increased focus on addressing affordability as distinct from supply. According to research commissioned by the National Housing Federation and Crisis, there needs to be 145,000 new affordable homes each year until 2031 – a figure that strengthens the case for more social rented housing. Levelling up threat But the current planning system cannot provide the social and affordable housing this country requires. Increased build costs arising from both domestic and international labour market and supply chain disruptions have considerably reduced social housing delivery in every region in England, particularly the North and Midlands. The long-term undersupply of social and affordable housing in the UK, coupled with the short-term risks to affordable supply from escalating building costs, significantly jeopardise the government’s levelling up agenda to reduce regional inequalities. It also continues to widen health inequalities, which have worsened across the country, but especially in neighbourhoods of high deprivation where people spend more of their shorter lives in poor health compared to those in less deprived areas. Soaring house prices and rents exacerbate the cost of living crisis and inequalities in access to quality, affordable and secure housing. In January, Halifax reported that UK house prices reached a record high, and house prices remained 9.7% up on average compared with January 2021. Meanwhile, private rents are rising at their fastest rate on record.  The dual phenomenon of rising house prices and rising rents has been compounded by wage stagnation, with real term wages lower now than before the 2008 financial crash, and widespread precarious work. There is a direct and mutually reinforcing relationship between insecure, low-paid work and insecure, overpriced rental homes, which disproportionately disadvantages women, particularly those living in London. Increasing housing supply is necessary but not sufficient to tackle the housing crisis. Affordability is key, especially to deliver on the levelling up agenda. This means ending the politics and practices that commodify land and housing, treating them as financial assets, rather than homes for people. Fortunately, in the UK, there are existing initiatives working to transform the housing system so that it serves people and the planet. People over profit First off, a growing network of communities across England and Wales have established community land trusts, set up by local people to develop and manage affordable housing. While CLTs have historically focused on providing affordable housing, they have expanded, especially in recent years, to provide a wider range of community assets including community gardens, civic buildings, pubs, shops, shared workspace, energy conservation schemes and food growing projects.  Second, more local authorities are raising their ambitions in allocating land in a way that benefits the public interest and generates social value for local communities. This means creating more affordable land for more affordable homes. For example, Liverpool City Region established a land commission to explore ways to bring about democratic land reform, so that land use helps to drive health, wellbeing and environmental sustainability and, in turn, generate economic and social benefits.  Finally, renters’ unions in cities across the UK are supporting people living in the private and social rented sectors to fight for safe, secure, affordable and decent homes. Renters’ unions are typically led by and for renters, social housing residents, people living in temporary accommodation and homeless people. In cities like London, Manchester and Bristol, such unions have been successful in challenging bad landlords and letting agents, get much-needed repairs for renters and stop illegal evictions. There is also a Renter Manifesto, part of an England-wide renters’ campaign. These initiatives show that there is increasing appetite and collective action across the country to democratise our housing system. We can build on these efforts to transform our housing system, so that it is in the service of people and the planet, not profit. Tiffany Lam is research manager at the Quality of Life Foundation Image © Andy Drysdale/REX/Shutterstock