Can't change? Won't change? - The UK's housing issue

Some 80% of us believe there is a housing crisis. Some 60% or more of renters believe they will NEVER be able to afford to buy a home (they nearly all want to). So why did the latest Lyons Review on housing receive such a muted response?

The Conservatives talked of unfunded borrowing to pay for the promised 200,000 homes annually, and the public shrugged. Despite “generation rent’s” problems, only 15% of us think housing is the biggest problem facing the country – and only 5% say it will determine how they vote at the General Election.

At first sight this seems counter-intuitive. As a Londoner one hears of little else. Looking into the entrails of the data, in London it IS a key issue - there 33% see it as the biggest problem facing the UK. For most though, housing – and related issues like Council Tax reform -remains in the “too difficult” box for politicians and in the “too complicated” box in voters’ minds. Unlike the NHS, it is not seen as “the government’s fault”. Londoners’ complaints centre on migrants buying up all the stock and prices being too high – but make little link to supply (mentioned by half as many).

Even in the part of the UK most concerned, building more houses is not seen as the key solution. And as we move away from London more building drops further down the list, and preservation of Green belts, green fields, green anything – especially next door – becomes more important. Only 40% of Britons say they want more homes in their area.

Until a government is elected that decides to ignore public opinion and just start building don’t expect any of the numbers above to shift much.

Ben Page is Chief Executive of Ipsos and wrote this article for the Municipal Journal