The Prime Minister has committed to building “more houses, more quickly” as the government comes under further pressure on the growing housing crisis.
The government will announce measures to “fix the broken housing market” in “the coming weeks and months”, Theresa May said.
The Prime Minister was speaking ahead of new housing supply figures, which are due out tomorrow morning.
Most recent figures, for 2015-16, showed an 11 per cent year-on-year increase in the total number of net additional dwellings to 189,650 – but the total was still down 15 per cent on the 2007-2008 peak.
May said: “For decades we simply have not been building enough homes, nor have we been building them quickly enough, and we have seen prices rise. The number of new homes being delivered each year has been increasing since 2010, but there is more we can do.
“We must get back into the business of building the good quality new homes for people who need them most.”
May was speaking ahead of an announcement given today in Bristol by communities secretary Sajid Javid to wipe housing associations’ debt off the balance sheet.
Javid will say: “There are many, many faults in our housing market, dating back many, many years. If you only fix one you’ll make some progress, but not enough. This is a big problem and we have to think big.”
Last month the minister called on his cabinet colleague Philip Hammond to consider borrowing billions at current low interest rates to boost house building. However City A.M. understands the chancellor is cool on the measure – or indeed anything particularly radical – being included in next week’s Budget.
Source: City A.M.