85% of election candidates think Britain is `not building enough homes'
A new survey by Ipsos published today by Inside Housing ahead of the general election has found 79% of Prospective Parliamentary Candidates in marginal constituencies agree that there is a housing crisis in Britain.
- 9% agree that ‘there isn’t much that British governments can do to deal with the country’s housing problems’ (88% disagree)
- 69% agree that ‘house prices are too high’ (16% disagree)
- 85% agree that ‘we are not building enough new homes to keep up with what is needed’ (10% disagree)
As a group, they are relatively less convinced about the existence of housing crisis in their constituency, but their scepticism is less strongly felt than it is among both MPs and the public; 31% disagree with this assessment compared to 40% and 48% of MPs and voters respectively.
Candidates also expect to receive more correspondence from constituents about housing than any other topic if elected – 37% expect to receive letters or approaches about housing, four times the 9% who expect the same of immigration. Ipsos’s survey of MPs last winter found housing tied with benefits and the NHS/health services as the top topics.
They are no more likely than the public or incumbent MPs to identify housing as among the most important issues facing Britain today. 12% do so and only 7% think that housing will determine peoples’ votes at the election.
Chiming with Ipsos’s polling for the Chartered Institute of Housing among the public and MPs published earlier this year, Conservatives are relatively less sure of national and especially local housing crises relative to Labour and Liberal Democrat PPCs, but are equally likely to agree that there is need to boost housing supply.
Election candidates as a whole are surer than the public about supply; 85% agree that we are not building enough homes compared to 61% of Britons when polled last year.
Most PPCs are currently buying their property on a mortgage (49%) or own it outright (36%) despite having a younger age profile than the national population. 14% currently rent privately but 28% have previously rented in this way. Only 1 of the 98 (a Conservative) currently live in social housing, although 7 have previously done so. 4 are landlords.
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Ipsos interviewed 98 potential parliamentary candidates between 3rd February and 13th March 2015.
The party split was 26 Conservative, 29 Labour, 20 Liberal Democrats, 11 SNP, 7 UKIP, 4 Green and 1 from Plaid Cymru.
Candidates from the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat political parties were selected to take part on the condition that they were inheriting a safe seat from an MP in their party who is stepping down, or that they are contesting a seat where they need a swing of less than 15% to win (based on 2010 election results).
Candidates from the other parties were selected for constituencies where they had the most chance of winning.
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