A report into declining home-ownership has called for a long-term strategy for the housing market, with cross-party agreement on 10- and 20-year housing targets.
The Redfern Review also calls for an independent housing commission to be set up, and says there should be a “set of readily deployable counter-cyclical tools” to be in place in the event of a downturn.
The report notes that a contingency plan for a recession would include “early and swift intervention”.
The review, commissioned by shadow housing secretary John Healey, and headed by Taylor Wimpey boss Pete Redfern, delivers no startling insights – and only seems to have consulted two estate agents.
The report blames high house prices for the fall in home-ownership and says young people have been most affected. Young people have also had the problem of tougher lending rules which particularly affect first-time buyers.
Between 2002 and 2014, the home-ownership rate in England fell from 70.9% to 63.6%.
House prices between 1996 and 2006 rose 151%, but earnings by only 39%.
Nevertheless, the report says that around 80% of people aspire to home-ownership.
The document says supply constraints have not been to blame for high house prices, or for falling home-ownership.
It says that additional housing supply alone is unlikely to shift the home-ownership rate in the near future.
However, the report does call for “decades of consistent supply improvement”, with a long-term plan to be agreed by all the main political parties.
Strikingly, the report names its panel of advisers and the organisations from which it took submissions – but very few seem to have day to day experience of dealing with and talking to home buyers and sellers, and private tenants who might be hoping to get on to the housing ladder.
The names include economists, think tanks, lenders and social housing organisations. There were no estate agents represented on the expert panel, and only two agents are mentioned as having had a submission taken.
These were Cluttons and Savills, which also hosted round tables. The RICS, Shelter, Hometrack and Generation Rent are also credited with giving a submission, but not the NAEA or ARLA, neither of whom was approached.
Healey said: “Labour is determined to get to grips with the falling number of home-owners.”
Another fine example of intellectuals having the prime places with no ‘ground troops’ being involved. The statement ‘Supply constraints have not been to blame for high prices, or for falling home-ownership’ just indicates to me a complete lack of basic understanding. They are all inter-linked….limited supply pushes prices up which excludes more first time buyers on affordability.
I don’t think the answers are rocket science….I have suggested many before on PIE and set up a new thread ‘Help for First Time Buyers’ in ‘The Arena’, but you need to be working in amongst it and be able to think outside the box……with all due respect I wouldn’t expect the head of a building company to have that kind of first hand experience.
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