We’ll never solve the housing crisis with open borders
- If Labour want to alleviate pressures on house prices and rents, they need to get tougher on migration
- If migration hits 340,000 per annum – we'll need to build 1.78m houses over a five-year parliament
- Net migration accounted for 94% of England's housing deficit over the last decade
The best thing about this Government – perhaps the only good thing at all – is the ambition to build 1.5 million homes over the course of this Parliament. Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and Angela Rayner could and should increase this target, and lean on Sadiq Khan to get a lot more building in London, where output has been woefully short. But it is a worthy ambition nonetheless.
Unfortunately, relative boldness on planning reform is on a collision course with the distinct lack of élan on display on the immigration front. There were probably sighs of relief in Downing Street this morning when new Office for National Statistics (ONS) data showed that net migration fell by 50% to 431,000 in 2024 (mostly, it must be said, as a result of changes to the immigration rules in the dying days of the previous Conservative government).
The whole piece is well worth reading because MPs are familiar with both the problem and a practical solution - they must be. Unfortunately it doesn't affect them personally and for many of them, tackling it would be desperately unfashionable. One aspect of the issue could be that trivial.
We don’t yet have net additional dwellings data for all of 2024, but for the four-year period to March 2024, we know that the housing stock in England increased by around 907,570 homes. That would have been enough to meet domestic pressures. But on top of that, migration generated demand for a further 930,000 units. So immigration accounted for the entirety of the increase in the housing deficit.
We don’t yet have net additional dwellings data for all of 2024, but for the four-year period to March 2024, we know that the housing stock in England increased by around 907,570 homes. That would have been enough to meet domestic pressures. But on top of that, migration generated demand for a further 930,000 units. So immigration accounted for the entirety of the increase in the housing deficit.
6 comments:
And even IF we build 1.78m houses over a five-year parliament, we all know who's going to end up living in them - it won't be struggling English families...
Dave - although it has been suggested that many won't be worth buying because of the way they are being shoved up as quickly as possible with not enough experienced builders.
When they start building in the green belt, and a shanty-town threatens the golf course and the Colonel's wife gets leered at when she's walking Monty on the village green, we should see some serious opposition.
Just consider the cost of a new two-bedroom brick box with solar panels and heat pump. You're not going to be able to afford that if you are an unskilled migrant. It would take a lot of uber deliveries to save up.
Sam - this is the main concern, the likely consequences of failing to make it work and the likelihood that it won't work.
It was obvs from the beginning that there wasn't a cat's chance of getting millions of houses because they had devoted not a single synapse to considering water supply, sewerage, gas, and electricity connections.
They've already has nearly a year: where is the ground being broken for new reservoirs, eh?
dearieme - yes it was obvious, one of those political antics which pushes stupidity to the top of the list of explanations for their behaviour.
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