Fixing Our Broken Housing Market

The proposals in this white paper set out how the Government intends to boost housing supply and, over the long term, create a more efficient housing market whose outcomes more closely match the needs and aspirations of all households and which support wider economic prosperity.

There is ‘no place like home’ sighs Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. A sentiment with heightened meaning in Britain 2020. There is no book like Broken Homes either.

This topical, edited collection analyses the state of the planning system in England and offers a robust, evidence-based review of over a decade of change since the Conservative-led coalition government came to power. With a critique of ongoing planning reforms by the UK government, the book argues that the planning system is often blamed for a range of issues caused by ineffective policy making by government. Including chapters on housing, localism, design, zoning and the consequences of Brexit for environmental planning, the contributors unpick a complicated set of recent reforms and counter the claims of the think-tank-led assault on democratic planning.

What are the major housing problems in contemporary Britain, and how effective are the policies designed to tackle them? Since the second edition of Understanding Housing Policy was published in 2011, political and financial circumstances have transformed the answers to these questions. In this fully updated third edition, Brian Lund both explores how these policies developed and were implemented under the UK Coalition Government and looks ahead to the possible revisions under the new Conservative Government. Integrating the previous edition with new discussions of such subjects as the austerity agenda following the credit crunch, the impact of the Coalition Government's housing policies, and new policy ideas, Lund offers keen insight into the pervasive impact of need, demand, and supply as applied to the housing market and austerity policies.

In these divided and divisive times, what is the future course for our politics? In this ground-breaking book, Nick Timothy, one of Britain’s leading conservative thinkers and commentators, explores the powerful forces driving great changes in our economy, society and democracy. Drawing on his experience at the top of government, Timothy traces the crisis of Western democracy back to both the mistaken assumptions of philosophical liberalism and the rise of ideological ultra-liberalism on left, right and centre. Sparing no sacred cows, he proposes a new kind of conservatism that respects personal freedom but also demands solidarity. He argues that only by rediscovering a unifying sense of the common good and restoring a mutual web of responsibilities between all citizens and institutions can we reject the extremes of economic and cultural liberalism, overcome our divisions, and remake one nation. He goes on to outline an ambitious practical plan for change, covering issues ranging from immigration to the regulation of Big Tech. Nick Timothy’s original, forensic and thought-provoking analysis is a must-read for anybody tired by the old dogmas of the liberal left, right and centre. It is a major contribution to the debate on the future of conservatism as it grapples with geopolitical shifts, cultural change, and economic uncertainty.

For many younger and lower-income people, housing affordability continues to worsen. Based on the academic research of two distinguished housing economists – and stimulated by working with governments across the world - this wide-ranging book sets out clear theoretical and empirical frameworks to tackle one of today’s most important socio-economic issues. Housing unaffordability arises from complex forces and a prerequisite to effective policy is understanding the causes of rising house prices and rents and the interactions between housing, housing finance and the macroeconomy. The authors challenge many of the conventional wisdoms in housing policy and offer innovative recommendations to improve affordability.

In this book, Brian Lund builds on contemporary housing crisis narratives, which tend to focus on the growth of a younger ‘generation rent,’ to include the differential effects of class, age, gender, ethnicity and place, across the United Kingdom. Current differences reflect long-established cleavages in UK society, and help to explain why housing crises persist. Placing the UK crises in their global contexts, Lund provides a critical examination of proposed solutions according to their impacts on different pathways through the housing system. As the first detailed analysis of the multifaceted origins, impact and potential solutions of the housing crisis, this book will be of vital interest to policy practitioners, professionals and academics across a wide range of areas, including housing studies, urban studies, geography, social policy, sociology, planning and politics.

This is the first book to offer a systematic and analytical overview of the legal framework for residential construction. In doing so, the book addresses two fundamental questions: Prevention: What assurances can the law give buyers (and later owners and occupiers) of homes that construction work – from building of a complete home to adding an extension or replacing a shower unit – will comply with minimum standards of design, safety and build quality? Cure: What forms of redress - from whom, and by what route - can residents expect, when, often long after completion of construction, they discover defects? The resulting problems pose some big and difficult questions of principle and policy about standards, rights and remedies, which in turn concern justice more generally. This book addresses these key issues in a comparative context across the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. It is an accessible guide to the existing law for residents and construction professionals (and their legal advisers), but also charts a course to further, meaningful reforms of the legal landscape for residential construction around the world. The book's two co-authors, Philip Britton and Matthew Bell, have taught in the field in the UK, Australia and New Zealand; both have been active in legal practice, as have the book's two specialist contributors, Deirdre Ní Fhloinn and Kim Vernau.

The UK's chronic housing shortage is lowering the quality of life for millions, turning the British dream of home ownership into a cruel nightmare – not least for 'generation rent'. Countless vulnerable families are meanwhile being deprived of access to decent social housing, causing homelessness to spiral. In this searing polemic, Liam Halligan offers radical solutions to the most urgent political issue of our times. Fully updated, with a foreword from former Chancellor Sajid Javid and drawing on extensive interviews with Cabinet ministers, civil servants, leading developers and struggling homebuyers across the country, Home Truths is a no-holds-barred critique of the UK's housing crisis.