In its manifesto of 1951 the Conservative party stated: “Housing is the first of the social services. It is also one of the keys to increased productivity. Work, family life, health and education are all undermined by crowded houses. Therefore, a Conservative and Unionist government will give housing a priority second only to national defence.” True then and true now. Unfortunately, the Tories of the 2020s forgot these simple words of wisdom and gave way instead to the paralysing influence of nimbyism. In doing so they parted company with the aspirations of millions of Britons and last week it was one of the many reasons they paid the ultimate political price.
With the Tories consigned for now to oblivion it is Labour’s turn to tackle the housing famine. Even in its triumph, the party must be in no doubt that failure to match current rhetoric with action — consistently, year after year — will end in the same rout in five years’ time. With a huge majority and free of worries about its electoral base (fledgling Labour MPs in rural seats are likely temporary renters, not permanent residents) the government must exploit ruthlessly its window of opportunity.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, was in bullish mood yesterday as she recommitted her party to building 1.5 million homes over the parliament. Shares in housebuilders rose and with them hopes for a permanent end to a planning regime that has for years acted as a drag anchor on residential construction (and deterred foreign businesses from investing in new manufacturing sites). Restoring mandatory housebuilding targets for councils, Ms Reeves also promised to unblock stalled projects and instil a “yes” culture in planning departments with a rewrite of the national planning policy framework, the guidance given by government to councils. There will also be 300 more planning officers (helpful but not nearly enough to replace those who have fled their jobs in the last decade).
Rumoured changes include unlocking development on agricultural land by capping the amount owners can charge when they are compelled to sell for development, and a Towns Bill providing the legal underpinning for the construction of new towns and extensions to existing settlements. This is a programme of national importance and rightly appears to be the government’s first priority.
Strapped into a fiscal straitjacket that for now severely constrains its freedom of manoeuvre, Labour has staked everything on growth. Growth means increased receipts without tax rate rises; it means borrowing can remain static while falling as a proportion of GDP. Construction is not only a driver of growth, it is vital for a country missing four million homes. For the government, this bonanza cannot come too soon. The contradictions inherent in Labour’s tax and spend plans (no major tax rises, debt falling in five years and no new austerity in public services) can be solved only by external, meaning private, means. To mean business Labour must ally itself with business.
Advertisement
There is a caveat. When Labour goes hunting for sites in the green belt, even the less bucolic stretches now euphemised as grey belt, it must have an eye to the quality and beauty of new development. Labour’s great warrior, Aneurin Bevan, said of post-war housebuilding: “We shall be judged for a year or two by the number of houses we build. We shall be judged in ten years’ time by the type of houses we build”. Like the Tory manifesto of 1951, it remains perfectly sound advice.
