Labour’s 1.5 Million Homes Housing Promise: A Lifeline for First-Time Buyers or Empty Words?

National World - LocalTV

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?

Transcript

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.

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