Kings speech: Housing plans appear to be all talk with no action
This morning King Charles outlined the governments legislative plans for the year ahead. At the centre was ambitions to ‘turbocharge’ housebuilding, but experts aren’t convinced ideas will dig us out of the housing crisis.
At 11:30AM King Charles took his seat in the Palace of Westminster to deliver Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s legislative agenda. In the lead-up to the event, experts believed mandatory housing targets would be at the core, but experts have since expressed disappointment over what will be introduced to ‘get Britain building’.
Within the speech, King Charles outlined that the government plan to reform planning procedures so they can achieve their target of delivering 1.5 million new homes and provide greater protections to renters by abolishing no-fault evictions. In addition, Keir Starmer also has ideas to devolve spatial planning powers to the country’s metro mayors as a way of encouraging regional governments to deliver more properties.
It’s not to say these ideas don’t hold promise, but with the latest housing figures showing the average price of a property is around £300,000 it’s not to say adding more into the mix will necessary lower costs. Instead, experts are calling for a greater focus on delivering more social homes.
Below we have gathered a pool of responses to the Kings speech from housing specialists. This story will be updated throughout the day.
Lee Bloomfield, Chief Executive of the Manningham Housing Association
‘The country has endured a deepening housing crisis for many years which has curtailed life chances and stunted economic progress in deprived communities.
‘Sadly, successive governments have backed away from their housebuilding commitments after encountering opposition either within their own ranks or from local pressure groups.
‘I welcome the measures outlined in the King’s Speech aimed squarely at delivering the homes we need in Bradford, Keighley and elsewhere – but we have been here before.
‘This time must be different which means Ministers sticking to their policy pledges and standing strong in the face of the inevitable challenges to new developments.
‘That task will be greatly helped by politicians from all parties accepting the need to build new homes, rather than habitually opposing local housebuilding for political gain.’
Oli Sherlock, Managing Director of Insurance at Goodlord
‘With the government confirming plans to scrap Section 21 as part of a Renters’ Rights Bill, there is only a short window of time in which to address the one area that could make or break the success of the new legislation: the courts. We must unclog the court backlog. The legal system is fraying at the seams and cannot cope even with current level of claims. There’s no value in scrapping Section 21 if the court system can’t handle the influx of demand it will inevitably unlock. We need a plan, with timelines, on how the legal system will cope.’
Lauren Hughes, Head of Customer Success at Vouch:
‘I’m sure the whole sector is delighted with the government’s ambitious plans to “turbocharge” the building of new homes. The only route to re-stabilising the housing sector is building more high-quality homes – this will get more supply into the rental market, take pressure off tenants, and create new investment opportunities for landlords. But houses aren’t created overnight, so we need to get shovels in the ground as quickly as possible if we want to see the impact within a reasonable timeframe.’
Nicholas Harris, Chief Executive at Stonewater:
‘We are pleased to see that in the King’s Speech today, similar to during the General Election campaign, the Labour government is committed to increasing the number of new homes being built. However, we eagerly await further, more defined details of exactly how the government will achieve its targets.
‘Giving more decision-making power to local government and authorities as well as reforming the planning process will be a positive step in increasing housebuilding across the country, something that Stonewater will be eager to continue our involvement in, particularly in the provision of affordable, safe and energy-efficient homes for people that need them most.
‘We are also interested to hear more detail on the targets for net zero and clean energy, which will not only help preserve our planet but also support customers with lower energy bills and warmer homes.’
Toby Armstrong, CEO of Locality:
‘The English Devolution Bill is a major opportunity to ensure local people really can ‘take back control’. A new Community Right to Buy will be a big help to communities trying to save valued local spaces – this is very welcome and is something Locality has long campaigned for.
‘More powers for Mayors and Combined Authorities will help us on the journey to community power. But to really tackle the big problems in our society, from sluggish economic growth to NHS waiting lists, we can’t just stop there. The bill should also ensure local neighbourhoods and communities have the power to decide where funding goes, what opportunities are created, and how services are run.
‘The government has promised to ‘transfer power out of Westminster, and into our communities’. We look forward to helping make sure this bill delivers that long overdue transformation.’
Richard Beresford, Chief Executive of the National Federation of Builders:
‘It is refreshing to have a government which views its primary role as enabling growth and removing barriers because this ensures business and communities know they can be part of the strategy.
‘The continued focus on planning reform should also be applauded because it has been almost a century since any government understood its role in enabling business growth, better places and a healthier, well-functioning society. It does feel as though country is being put before party.’
Rico Wojtulewicz, Head of Policy and Market Insight at the NFB:
‘The NFB has been lobbying for apprenticeship levy reform for some time, so we are delighted the King’s Speech agrees with our recommendation.
Ian Barnett National Land Director at Leaders Roman Group:
‘Local authorities have been under resourced for some time which, coupled with an ambiguous and often contradictory planning system has stifled development and growth. The King’s Speech suggests a new direction which is welcome.’
Cris McGuinness, Chief Financial Officer at Riverside:
‘It is heartening to see the new housing and planning bill at the centre of the new government’s first King’s Speech as it sets the tone that solving the housing crisis will be a national priority over the lifetime of this Parliament – something we have not seen for decades.
‘Abolishing Section 21 evictions will help prevent thousands of households a year from becoming homeless with official data showing no fault evictions resulted in a record 25,910 households being threatened with homelessness in 2023.
‘As one of the biggest builders of affordable housing in England streamlining the planning system will help unpick some of the blockages which stop economic growth and prevent the delivery of much needed new homes and infrastructure. However, planning reform alone is not enough – as economic conditions improve the government must provide significant grant funding to deliver the social homes we need.
‘The new government has been clear their number one priority is growing the economy.
‘Increasing the supply of social and affordable housing in generation has the potential to turbocharge growth as evidenced by analysis from the Centre for Economics and Business Research earlier this year – the government could add £51.2bn to the economy, including £12bn profit to the taxpayer, by building 90,000 social homes.
‘We understand public finances are tight. However, after years of uncertainty and underfunding our sector desperately needs stability so we urge the government to commit to a long-term settlement for social housing rents. As a sector, rental income for social housing is now 15% lower in real terms compared with 2015 at a time when we are rightly seeing record increases in investment in our housing stock.’
Feature image: Markus Spiske
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