Labour promises the biggest housing drive in generations—but critics warn major practical obstacles could derail their plans. Can Britain really build its way out of the housing crisis by 2029?
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00:00There is no doubt that the houses are available.
00:03The big issue for many people is affordability.
00:06We have a situation where those who are younger are on wages, which they're just not able
00:12to... without help from parents, for instance, they're not able to get big enough mortgages
00:17to afford houses.
00:18And, of course, what we've seen in recent years is the average price of the property
00:21going up, whereas wages have fallen way behind.
00:25Now, I don't doubt, of course, that some of that has been stripped away by inflation,
00:30which makes them more affordable.
00:32The problem is still pretty immense.
00:34And, indeed, we have a problem, in particular, that young people are not getting any other
00:40lifeblood, who want to get on the housing ladder, so to speak, but, of course, there's
00:44a blockage insofar as they can't afford them.
00:46And also, at the other end, you've got the older people living in big houses who would
00:51perhaps like to downsize, but, of course, the taxation system...
00:54I'm talking about stamp duty in particular... that mitigates against it.
00:58So, there's not enough sort of turnover in the system, as it were, so you need sort of
01:02the new blood and those coming out of it also going somewhere else.
01:06Housing industry leaders have repeatedly emphasised practical challenges, calling for urgent improvements
01:12in local planning departments to keep Labour's strategy on track.
01:16There's also concern about the pace of training new construction workers, with questions remaining
01:21of whether the government's recent funding pledge will translate quickly enough into
01:26a visible workforce boost.
01:28Big, big problem.
01:30The 1.5 minute, it was sort of, if you like, a pre-election pledge, and, indeed, it's kind
01:35of... it's been kicked into the long grass, because no one believes that at the current
01:39rate that the houses are being built, that this target is ever going to be met.
01:44And notwithstanding the fact that, of course, immigration in sort of recent years has been
01:48anything up to sort of a minute and beyond.
01:50So, you know, we have a sort of problem, and, indeed, we see this in terms of rented accommodation,
01:55we don't have sort of social housing in the same way we once did, and, indeed, homelessness,
02:00which is perhaps part of this problem.
02:02And even those of the Labour government and Chancellor Sir Reeves has talked about sort
02:06of house building as being one of the bright spots.
02:08Yeah, I think there's a lot more she could have done with some sort of really adventurous
02:11and creative thinking, and, indeed, you know, perhaps, you know, rethinking sort of stamp
02:16duty holiday.
02:17But, of course, that means, of course, you're not getting so much money into sort of the
02:20exchequer as she might do.
02:22So, as I say, time to be sort of adventurous, but, you know, Rachel Reeves is someone who
02:27doesn't seem to sort of want to do adventurous and creative.