Public: building more homes is the number one housing priority, but other things matter too!

New research conducted by Ipsos for Zoopla, 14-17 June 2024, shows that people want building more affordable homes to be the highest priority for the next government..

Building more affordable homes is top priority 

• Across Britain, 17% of voters choose building more housing as the top housing priority for the next government, 44% select it as the top or among the most important priorities. 
• This is closely followed by tackling homelessness and rough sleeping, selected by 11% as the top priority and 41% as top/among the top priorities. 
• Reducing the number of empty homes is also salient; chosen by 8% as top priority and 39% as top/among the top priorities.

There are similarities and differences among different groups

• These three priorities also make up the top three for Labour and Conservative voters in 2019, although Labour voters are much more likely to choose building more affordable homes than their Conservative counterparts (52% compared to 41%). 
• Private renters are relatively more likely to attach higher priority to controlling the pace of rent rises and rental reforms, while higher proportions of owner-occupiers choose providing support for first-time buyers.

Governments can encourage building, but people prefer borrowing over taxes as a source of funding

• Six in ten voters, 61%, agree with the statement that ‘we are not building enough new homes to keep up with what is needed’. 
• Half, 50%, disagree that ‘there isn’t much Governments can do to encourage the building of new homes’. A fifth (21%) strongly disagree. 
• Four in ten (41%) support the idea of increasing Government borrowing to fund the building of more affordable homes, a quarter oppose it (26%).
• The reverse is true for using taxes to pay for new homes; only a quarter (26%) support this and four in ten (42%) oppose this.
• This is largely unchanged since a few months before the 2019 general election.

People are more likely than not to think that the parties pay a lot of attention to housing

Only a quarter, 24% think the political parties pay a lot of attention to housing

While still a minority view, this represents a significant increase since 2019 and before the general election then (it was 12%). Now, 40% disagree, also down over the past five years (60%).

In other findings:

• Eight in ten, 80%, would rather own than rent “given the choice”. 
• Seven in ten, 72%, think that house prices are currently too high.
• Two-thirds, 64%, agree that ‘it was harder/is harder for people my age to buy or rent a home to settle down in than it was for my parent’s generation’. Baby Boomers are relatively less likely to think this – 50% agree compared to 70% or more among Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X.
• Over half of people, 56%, believe that ‘having a mortgage is riskier than it used to be’ (it is 50% among mortgage holders).

Ben Marshall, Research Director at Ipsos, said:

Our survey with Zoopla provides the public’s perspective on the next Government’s housing in-tray and how full it is! Expanding Britain’s housing supply is among top priorities, as is more efficient use of existing stock and tackling homelessness.

This is driven by deeply-held worries – most people think finding a home to settle down in has become harder (something the Prime Minister recognised earlier in the election campaign) and that we are not keeping up with meeting the country’s needs for new housing. But the survey also finds a sense that the governments can affect change and facilitate an increase in the supply of new homes.

Technical note
On behalf of Zoopla, Ipsos surveyed a representative online sample of 1,139 adults aged 18+ across Great Britain between 14-17 June 2024 via the online Omnibus platform. Data are weighted to match the profile of the population. All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of error.