Shared ownership deserves its place in labour’s housing agenda

This weekend Labour’s Annual Conference begins in Liverpool. Ahead of the event, Adrian Plant of SOWN explains why shared ownership should be a priority. 

The Labour Party Conference is important for a number of reasons, not least because it marks the first time Steve Reed will address his peers. Presumably he’ll use the opportunity to set out his ambitions for the housing sector and demonstrate how his approach will differ from his predecessors. 

We hope that in doing so, he’ll show support for one of the sectors most in demand and yet most ignored by the party to date: shared ownership.

Since winning the election last July, the government has failed to so much as mention shared ownership in any policy document: it was entirely absent from the party’s manifesto and appears only in the glossary of the NPPF. Instead, Labour has focused on social rent and boosting the role of local authorities in housing. The government has shown determination on housing policy, from reforms to local plans to flexibilities in the affordable homes programme. But for many thousands of would-be buyers, shared ownership is the only accessible route onto the property ladder. 

The initiative is not a marginal product. Since its inception more than four decades ago, shared ownership has become an established fixture in the housing landscape. More than 200,000 households now live in shared ownership homes in England, with delivery at record levels. In 2021-22 alone, 19,386 new properties were brought forward, a 14% increase on the previous year. Demand is not the problem – supply and visibility are.

For aspiring homeowners, affordability has rarely looked more daunting. Today’s first time buyers are paying almost a third more to get on the ladder than just five years ago. The number of private renters moving into home ownership has fallen sharply, while rising rents and living costs have stretched household budgets thin. In this context, shared ownership provides a viable and scalable route to ownership for those who would otherwise be locked out.

Yet the sector still suffers from weak communications and persistent myths. Help to buy benefitted from slick, government-backed marketing: a recognised brand, a clear website and a trusted source of information. Shared ownership has never had this advantage. Instead, many misconceptions endure – that it is only for low-income households, that properties are of lesser quality, that they cannot be resold, or that full ownership is impossible. None of this is true, but the absence of consistent government messaging has left confusion in its wake.

If Labour is serious about helping first time buyers, shared ownership must be championed at the same level as other tenures. Ahead of the Labour Party Conference, the government should consider these four priorities to unlock the sector’s full potential:

1. Create a national communications campaign
   Give Shared Ownership the same clarity and authority that Help to Buy enjoyed. A trusted, government-led brand and information hub would dismantle myths and raise awareness.
2. Improve consistency in delivery
   Ensure local plans, funding streams and planning guidance support Shared Ownership on an equal footing with other affordable housing products, avoiding patchy provision across regions.
3. Link Shared Ownership to wider affordability measures
   Rising interest rates, frozen Lifetime ISAs and Stamp Duty changes have all compounded affordability pressures. Shared Ownership should sit within a broader suite of interventions that genuinely lower barriers for first time buyers. A strategy to support first time buyers is missing.
4. Encourage mixed-tenure communities
   Shared Ownership can help build inclusive neighbourhoods where social rent, private sale and Build to Rent (BTR) coexist. This supports not just housing delivery but also social mobility and balanced placemaking.

Shared ownership represents just 1% of the total housing stock but it is growing in popularity, particularly among older first time buyers, and could do more still with the right support. Government does not need to reinvent the wheel only to recognise the potential of a product already embedded in the housing system. It simply needs to back it with the same political will as it has shown for housebuilding targets and planning reform.

This article was written by Adrian Plant, director of SOWN.

Photo by Jakub Żerdzicki via UnSplash and Adrian Plant.

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