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Panorama Season 2025 Episode 32
#RealityRealmUS
Reality Realm US
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Reality Realm US
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Short filmTranscript
00:01Britain is in a housing crisis.
00:03When I complained about the rent going out, they said if I didn't I'd be evicted.
00:07With rents and house prices so high, many people can't afford a place to live.
00:13There is so much to cover that it's completely overwhelming.
00:16For decades, Britain has simply not built enough homes.
00:20We are so deep in this crisis, it's really difficult to articulate how deep we are.
00:25The government says it's tackling the problem.
00:28Today we launch a new plan to get Britain building again.
00:32It's time to build one and a half million new homes across the country.
00:37I'm Justin Rowlatt.
00:39This isn't really what I was expecting, you know, cocktails on the lawn.
00:42This place is huge.
00:44And I'm Anita Rani.
00:46I'm gonna just take a step back.
00:48Andy, no.
00:49We've been travelling across England.
00:51Now the average house price here is ten times the average local wage.
00:56To uncover some of the challenges to building one and a half million homes.
01:00We all know you're not supposed to build on the greenbelt.
01:04But what actually is the greenbelt?
01:07Do you ever just want to throw your hands up and say what's the point?
01:11Hitting the target will need a level of house building we haven't achieved for decades.
01:18Yeah, our generation, they want things handed to them, unfortunately.
01:22This is hard work.
01:23So can it be done?
01:25We're not gonna build baby build because that is the only way we tackle the housing crisis that we're facing in this country.
01:31I'm not gonna stand here and say 1.5 million is doable because it is going to be very, very difficult.
01:38Deep in the English countryside, I'm heading to a place that's key to building homes.
01:53And helping solve a housing crisis that has been brewing for decades.
01:59Across the UK, the cost of housing has rocketed.
02:03Real terms, house prices up 150% in the last 30 years.
02:09In some areas, rents are up more than 10% in the last year alone.
02:14To begin to address that, the government has set the target of building 1.5 million homes by the end of the parliament in 2029.
02:22Now that means building more than 300,000 homes a year.
02:27That's 100,000, 50% more than we're building at the moment.
02:32More homes than we've built since the 1960s.
02:35And it means we're gonna need a hell of a lot of these.
02:40We're gonna need a hell of a lot of bricks.
02:43This site in Surrey has a long history of digging up clay and baking bricks.
03:00It's like a handful of...
03:03Whoa.
03:05Yeah, so it's almost like little scales.
03:08Yeah.
03:09I'm gonna have to say, Simon, it looks a bit like mud.
03:12Mud.
03:13That's all we do.
03:14We brick makers, we dig mud.
03:16Dig mud and make it into bricks.
03:17We shape it into bricks, we dry it and then we fire it here.
03:20Can we touch it?
03:22For the sake of that, we can touch it.
03:24Yeah.
03:25Just feel it, isn't it?
03:27Very smooth.
03:29I like cheese cutters.
03:30So the water's cut through it and then it spits it out.
03:34That's it.
03:35This factory churns out 100,000 bricks a day.
03:38It's very delicate, isn't it?
03:40I do like watching that.
03:41I like to watch the robot work.
03:43We make more than a billion bricks a year in the UK.
03:50And you should be able to break that now, I would guess.
03:53Yeah.
03:54So, that was a perfectly good brick until a minute ago.
03:59I think we found the problem in the house.
04:01It's shorter.
04:03Finally, the bricks head for the kiln.
04:06So you can really feel the heat coming off here.
04:09Seriously, I mean, too hot to touch.
04:13Oh, wow.
04:15It's almost molten at that point.
04:17Yeah.
04:18It's that hot.
04:19Yeah.
04:20They're at 1,000 degrees there, so.
04:22And that's what it takes to make a brick.
04:24That's amazing.
04:26To reach the government's target,
04:28building materials manufacturers
04:30will have to significantly ramp up production.
04:35As a materials producer,
04:37can you produce the materials needed to build those homes?
04:40I think the majority of construction products
04:43producers within the UK and the near continent
04:46that supply the UK market
04:47would be capable of ramping up to that.
04:51But even if we can make enough,
04:53there's a problem for the government's target.
04:56In the last five years,
04:57the cost of making things like bricks
04:59has gone through the roof.
05:02It's one factor that's pushed up
05:04the cost of building new homes.
05:09And we've seen energy costs rise.
05:10What effect does that have on your brick business?
05:12That significantly increased the cost of production.
05:15There's no way around that, you know.
05:17We can't produce bricks using less gas.
05:20We are running them as efficiently as they can be.
05:22So all that does is put pressure upwards
05:25on your production costs.
05:27The prices of most of the components
05:29that you need to build a house
05:30will have gone up over the last five years.
05:32Another challenge to ramping up house building
05:44is that we don't have enough builders.
05:47It's estimated that the industry will need
05:49nearly a quarter of a million more workers
05:51to meet the target.
05:53Everything from surveyors through to brickies.
05:56We'll need 3,000 new plasterers for a start.
06:00This is great.
06:01It's not bad.
06:02How long have you been doing it?
06:03Just over a year.
06:05Yeah, just over a year.
06:06Enjoying it?
06:07I'm really enjoying it.
06:08I'm an electrician and a decorator.
06:09I've done all my courses here through the years.
06:13And so I've come back to do the plaster.
06:16This is very good.
06:17Yeah, so now I do all three at once.
06:19If you call me out, you get your job done completely.
06:21I'll take your cards before I finish.
06:24This is the College of North West London,
06:26where they train everyone from carpenters
06:28to heat pump engineers.
06:30They run full-time courses and provide training
06:32for apprentices employed by private companies.
06:35So, we scoop some material onto our hook.
06:39Uh-huh.
06:40And we do a thing called spotting.
06:44I mean, the bit before...
06:45Get some product onto your trowel,
06:47and then you're applying it for the wool.
06:50You made that look so easy.
06:51It is.
06:52How are you doing all of this with you?
06:53That's right.
06:54All right, so it goes on.
06:55That's it.
06:56Straight onto the hook.
06:57Lovely.
06:58Spot it, OK?
06:59Off the...
07:00That'll do for now.
07:01Right.
07:02Get it to the wool.
07:03Right.
07:04Nearly.
07:05I need to do a bit quicker.
07:06That's it.
07:07You're in.
07:08Keep that truck.
07:09Ow!
07:10You're even talking like a plasterer.
07:12Put your mouth!
07:14There you go.
07:15Right.
07:16Get the angle right.
07:17Get some more gear on that hook.
07:18Right.
07:19Come on, then.
07:20Right.
07:22Put that on top.
07:23That's fine.
07:24Like I said, it's one of the hardest bits.
07:26It's so hard!
07:27OK.
07:28Do you think we need to do more
07:29to encourage young people to get into this sector?
07:31Oh, we've got a shadow of a doubt.
07:32Do you think there's a snobbery around construction?
07:34Oh, without a shadow of a doubt, yeah.
07:35Fundamentally, there's always been a disconnect
07:37between professionals and construction workers
07:40or tradespeople.
07:41Over recent decades, more and more young people
07:45have gone to university.
07:46Further education colleges have sometimes felt neglected.
07:50Now the government has announced £600 million
07:53in extra funding for training construction workers,
07:56including more money for colleges like this.
07:59I would say that funding has improved recently,
08:03but the sector has been underfunded now
08:06for nearly two decades.
08:07So what would you like to see happen?
08:09There is a challenge in our sector of getting the right people
08:12to deliver this training and education.
08:14The reality is that our teachers earn more money in the trade
08:18than they do in education.
08:20And that is a chronic problem with our sector.
08:26Tens of thousands of EU workers have left UK construction since 2019,
08:31due largely to Brexit and the pandemic.
08:34It's proving a challenge to bring young trainees
08:37and apprentices like these into the industry.
08:39But why?
08:40Let me do the money.
08:42The money in the apprenticeship isn't great when you first start.
08:45You don't want to work hard.
08:46Come on, tell me.
08:47People don't really want to work hard.
08:48Is that right?
08:49Are you talking about your generation?
08:50Yeah, our generation.
08:51They want things handed to them, unfortunately.
08:54This is hard work.
08:55Some people, they don't want to think for themselves.
08:57They just want people to tell them what to do.
08:59Oh, could you just copy and paste this?
09:02Or could you go and do this?
09:03Office work.
09:04Yeah, office work.
09:05Easy stuff, isn't it?
09:06But this, you have to use your own brain.
09:08You have to think.
09:09You have to work things out.
09:10You have to pre-think.
09:13Neil Jefferson is the Chief Executive
09:15of the Home Builders Federation,
09:17which represents private house-building companies.
09:20Essentially, we're losing capacity, not gaining.
09:22The numbers are going in the wrong way.
09:24But we have got this ongoing issue,
09:26which really comes from the fact
09:27that we've got an ageing population out on site,
09:30with more than 25% of our current workforce being aged over 50.
09:34Well, hold on a second.
09:35Only 38% of construction companies take on apprentices.
09:39If there's a skills shortage,
09:41it's because your industry, your members,
09:43aren't doing enough to create
09:44the next generation of construction workers.
09:46I think there's a lot going on
09:47to attract new young people into the industry.
09:50There's a lot of our members
09:52who are working on a variety of schemes,
09:54working with local colleges,
09:55setting up skills hubs
09:57to train people close to existing sites.
10:00So there's a lot going on
10:01in terms of getting the pipeline going.
10:03While the industry tries to ramp up construction for the future,
10:07today's young people are feeling the impacts of the housing crisis.
10:11Londoners, like the students and staff at the college,
10:14face average rents, which are 42% of average wages.
10:18There's the rent, there's council tax, there's your student debt,
10:22there's working tax.
10:24You have your water bills, your gas bills, your electricity bills,
10:27and there is just basic needs and necessities as well.
10:31So there is so much to cover that it's completely overwhelming.
10:35How do you feel about one day purchasing a property
10:37or getting onto the housing ladder?
10:39Currently, I'm trying to save up to, you know,
10:42try to get a mortgage and stuff, but...
10:45How's that going?
10:46It's pretty expensive with the cost of living in,
10:49especially in London.
10:50Everything's really expensive.
10:51How likely is it, and when are you going to get on the property ladder?
10:55Be honest, be totally frank with me, I think you're...
10:57I couldn't tell you, honestly.
10:59You need the money to do, and I don't have the money yet.
11:02In my lifetime, the discussion of the housing crisis
11:05has gone to a worry for the people over there
11:09to pretty much everyone knowing someone
11:12that's struggling to pay their rent
11:14or can't get on the housing ladder.
11:16I think that's the biggest misunderstanding in this country
11:18of the housing crisis, that it's a crisis reserved
11:21for the poorest people in insecure jobs.
11:23It's not.
11:24There are professionals up and down the country
11:26that are struggling to pay their rent.
11:28You have people that are earning a living
11:30and they still can't afford a home.
11:32That tells us that our homes are completely unaffordable
11:35across the country.
11:39It's time to build 1.5 million new homes across the country.
11:43Opportunities for first-time buyers in every community.
11:49The 1.5 million homes target for England
11:51was at the centre of Labour's election manifesto.
11:55Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
11:57have their own ambitious housing targets.
12:00The then Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner
12:03was given the job of making it happen.
12:06I've got 1.5 million homes being spilled.
12:09Until she had to resign
12:11because of her own personal housing crisis.
12:16And now, New Housing Secretary Steve Reid
12:19has enthusiastically picked up the baton
12:22and a big red hat with a slogan.
12:25Build, baby, build.
12:28Just build, baby, build.
12:29You've been making a big deal about
12:34build, baby, build, haven't you?
12:35Even wearing a hat,
12:36which I have to say is a little bit reminiscent of Donald Trump.
12:39Well, it's important to signal to people
12:40that we have the determination
12:43to solve the housing crisis
12:45because people see it in their lives all around them today.
12:48And I think it's one of the drivers for younger people
12:51of a loss of confidence in our system
12:54because, you know, I was able to buy my first flat in my early 30s.
12:58Young people today cannot
13:00because the costs are out of reach for them.
13:03And that, at least in part,
13:05is because the supply of housing fell off a cliff.
13:08We are going to build, baby, build
13:09because that is the only way we tackle the housing crisis
13:12that we're facing in this country.
13:16Build, baby, build.
13:18It sounds straightforward,
13:19but on top of the rising costs of bricks and mortar
13:22and the shortage of workers,
13:24there's another major challenge for getting homes built.
13:28The planning system.
13:37South Tyneside on the North Sea coast
13:39is home to around 150,000 people.
13:43Hello, Anna.
13:44Hi, Anita.
13:45Nice to see you.
13:46You too.
13:47Anna Dixon is part of the housing team at the council.
13:51They're proud of these new homes on the site of the old docks.
13:56I think it's taken us a long time to get here,
13:58but actually now we can see people
14:00kind of living their lives within these gorgeous homes.
14:03I feel kind of there has been an accomplishment there.
14:07But Anna and the team have got a lot more work to do.
14:10They've struggled to build enough new homes.
14:13The borough has missed its housing target set by the government
14:16every year for the past eight years.
14:20At this moment in time,
14:21we're not meeting our housing delivery test.
14:23We've almost got a backlog of housing needs
14:25in terms of meeting our residents' requirements.
14:28Unfortunately, we see a rise in homelessness.
14:32We see a rise in people leaving the borough to live elsewhere,
14:35which obviously has an impact on our ability to provide workers.
14:41And it's not just housing.
14:43They need to make sure the area has everything it needs.
14:47We want to develop a community that has the right levels
14:50of schools and doctors, all those other things.
14:53Housing shouldn't just be a numbers game.
14:56We're trying to develop communities here.
14:59The council's already had to work out
15:01where three and a half thousand new homes could be built
15:04over the next 15 years.
15:07This goes into what's known as a local plan.
15:11It's the first stage of the planning system,
15:13and it's a legal requirement for all councils
15:16to have a local plan in place.
15:19This is our draft local plan.
15:22As you can see, this is the borough of South Tyneside,
15:25in which we've identified suitable sites for development.
15:29And that has looked at housing needs,
15:31you know, the communities, social needs, employment needs.
15:36And trying to balance all of that
15:37within a very small geographical area
15:40is obviously a challenge.
15:42Making the plan involves consultation.
15:45A lot of consultation.
15:48We've got the likes of Sports England.
15:50You know, some of these green areas are playing pitches.
15:53We have Natural England.
15:55You know, we've got a beautiful coastline.
15:57Certainly they would have something to say
15:59if we started building into this area as well.
16:02But that's just the start.
16:04Local planners may also be legally required to consult
16:08neighbouring local authorities,
16:10Homes England, the Environment Agency,
16:13Historic England, Highways Authority,
16:15Utility Providers, National Health Service,
16:17Police and Emergency Services,
16:19Civil Aviation Authority,
16:20Marine Management Organisation,
16:21Office of Rail and Road,
16:22County Councils,
16:23Local Enterprise Partnerships,
16:24Local Nature Partnerships,
16:25Local Residents and Community Groups,
16:26Parish and Town Councils,
16:27Businesses, Developers, Landowners,
16:30Voluntary Organisations.
16:32And that's before they even think about
16:34Education Services, Accessibility Advisors,
16:37Wildlife Trusts.
16:38And the documents go into hundreds of thousands of pages.
16:45I'm looking at a lot of paperwork here.
16:46Yes.
16:47Is this all of it?
16:48No, this is a drop in in the ocean really,
16:50but this just gives you a flavour.
16:52What's this lovely looking pile here?
16:55This looks like a lot of reading for somebody.
16:57Yes.
16:58And it was.
16:59Part of the statutory process is obviously we must engage with the community.
17:04This is what we've all received back in terms of representation and responses to that consultation.
17:14Earlier this year, the draft plan went in front of all the elected district councillors for approval.
17:20It's flawed, it's wrong, it's undemocratic and nothing will change because your government will see to that.
17:27After a three hour debate, the plan was defeated. Campaigners celebrate it.
17:35The Labour-run council voted for the second time to reject its own planning team's local plan.
17:41This leaves the borough with a local plan that's not been updated for the last 17 years.
17:50Now, the government has stepped in and forced the plan to the next stage.
17:54To be scrutinised by the planning inspectorate, an independent government agency.
18:00If they approve it, it could go ahead despite the local opposition.
18:05How far away are you from getting this signed off and being able to get on with it?
18:08If we get approval from the plan inspector, we're looking probably at the back end of 2026.
18:15Right. If you get approval?
18:17If we get approval.
18:18What happens if you don't?
18:21Back to the drawing board, probably.
18:24Meanwhile, the government, in its drive to build more homes, has changed the target.
18:30The target in South Tyneside has doubled from 309 to 623 new homes a year.
18:37As soon as this is adopted, then we'll have to start looking for sites for the future and that will be a higher target that we'll have to meet.
18:45So you've got even more houses?
18:46More houses, yes.
18:47To build.
18:48And are you getting help with that? Is the government providing you any help to make sure that they're met?
18:54Certainly there's new legislation in the offing. However, that might take some time.
19:01You know, we need houses now and we need to get some of these sites developed.
19:06Anna, do you ever just want to throw your hands up and say, what's the point?
19:09You know, you come in with a smile on your face every day and hope that you're doing the best job you can.
19:161.5 million houses by 2029. Do you think it's doable?
19:20I think it's certainly challenging. I think we are seeing investment.
19:24It's not going to be without its challenges. I'm not going to stand here and say 1.5 million is doable because it is going to be very, very difficult.
19:34It's not just South Tyneside. Across England, fewer than a third of councils have an up-to-date local plan.
19:42The government has now promised to get tough and force all councils to agree a local plan.
19:51Paul Cheshire is an economist who's given advice to governments on planning policy for decades.
19:57Surely the government could just say to local authorities, listen, you guys, you have to have a plan.
20:00There's some kind of penalty. If you don't have a plan, you know, we're going to penalise you.
20:04They do say that, but they don't penalise them, one.
20:08And even if you did, you've got an underfunded planning system.
20:11We've made that process hugely overcomplicated.
20:14So it would take years for that to have any impact.
20:18How on earth are you going to get 1.5 million houses built if local authorities don't even have a local plan in place?
20:24The previous government allowed this situation to develop,
20:28where you've got the majority of councils without a local plan.
20:31Well, you've been in for 15 months now.
20:33Well, and we've got the new legislation going through that will change the planning process.
20:36So they're far more incentivised to put one in place.
20:39And we will be ensuring that councils put them in place.
20:44Back in South Tyneside, I want to find out what's behind the objections to the local plan.
20:50Hello, Diane.
20:51Hiya.
20:52Nice to meet you.
20:53Nice to meet you.
20:54Nice to meet you.
20:55The most controversial part is the proposal to build 1,200 new homes in these fields.
21:00Next door to an existing housing estate called Felgate.
21:04What do I want?
21:07To save the greenbelt.
21:09The fields are in the greenbelt and local residents have formed a campaign group to fight the plans.
21:15They say the land is prone to flooding and local roads couldn't handle the increased traffic.
21:21You're lucky to have this on your doorstep.
21:23Yeah, absolutely.
21:24And it would be such a shame if it went.
21:26Diane is part of the group, which is also campaigning to protect wildlife habitats in and around the proposed site.
21:34So this is Candy.
21:36Oh, look at this.
21:38Little oasis.
21:39And that's Tyler at the back.
21:41So Candy's always at the front.
21:43You've got a whole family.
21:44And it is.
21:45They haven't been named yet, but they will.
21:46And if you hear them, that's them shouting for their dinner.
21:48And how long have they been here?
21:50Erm, five years now.
21:52Diane has lived in the area for much of her life and visits the ponds every day.
21:58What does this area mean to the estate?
22:01It means everything, you know.
22:03We're in the middle of a housing estate and right here, right now, you wouldn't know that.
22:06Yeah, out, the fresh air, when the sun's shining, it's lovely.
22:09When the snow's on the ground, it's really lovely.
22:11You know, I've had lots of tragedy in my life, you know, and I think most of us have.
22:16But this is my go-to. This is my feel-good thing.
22:19This is what makes going to work every day and coming here just kind of breaks that all down the whole of the day,
22:25wherever stresses it may be, go.
22:28The council's plan aims to deliver new homes on the nearby farmland
22:32and protect and improve wildlife habitats.
22:36So how do you feel about the possibility of a housing estate being there?
22:39Absolutely mortified. It would be an absolute tragedy.
22:42There is a pond further over where they've already built houses.
22:46And that pond is where originally Candy lived.
22:49Now, there was ducks on there. There was, I mean, originally there was swans on there.
22:53Because of the building, there's nothing there now.
22:56You know, I mean, how can you look at them and just want them to just not be here?
22:59You know, they've been here for years now.
23:01Some people might think that the need of people and the need for housing is more important.
23:09That's probably how some people feel it, but why can't you have a balance?
23:13You don't have to use green. Oh, no.
23:15Your mate's turned up. She's going to bite me. She's going to bite me.
23:18Does she bite? Yeah. She's massive.
23:20She does bite. This is what she's after. What after?
23:25Candy loves me backpack.
23:28Candy's enormous. Candy's been very well fed. Yeah. Yeah, she has.
23:34There you go. Good girl.
23:39Candy, no. You did.
23:41I know I'm a Countryfile presenter, but... You did.
23:45I'm going to just take a step back and watch Diane in action. Candy, no. No.
23:54For now, Diane and the other residents have to wait for the decision of the planning inspectorate.
23:59But even that won't mean the end of the planning battle.
24:06Even once the local plan's been voted through, each individual development then needs separate planning permission.
24:13And that's a whole other ball game.
24:16When it comes to getting planning permission, the system in England is in crisis.
24:26Only one in five council planning teams are fully staffed.
24:30It now takes an average of two years to get a decision on an outline planning application for ten or more homes.
24:38That's more than doubled since 2014.
24:41And it is particularly difficult to get permission if you want to build on the Greenbelt.
24:48Ah, the Greenbelt.
24:54That great protector of the British countryside.
25:00We've all heard of the Greenbelt. We all know you're not supposed to build on the Greenbelt.
25:09But what actually is the Greenbelt?
25:12The first Greenbelt was created in the 1930s, when cities were rapidly expanding, threatening to sprawl out into the countryside.
25:22Protective Greenbelts surrounding many towns and cities have now grown to cover 13% of England, where the bar is extremely high for getting any planning permission.
25:35Professor Paul Cheshire is also the author of a major report on the Greenbelt.
25:44And he offered to show me round this nice spot of Greenbelt land in Kent, near Sevenoaks.
25:50So I thought I'd make it a nice day out.
25:53What do you think of the hire car?
25:55Pretty good, isn't it? Very smart, very smart.
25:57But you still haven't opened the locket system.
25:59Yeah, there you go.
26:00We are in the glorious Greenbelt, beautiful fields and trees and hedgerows.
26:08This is very pretty, isn't it?
26:10Yes, yes, yes, yes.
26:12But it turns out the Greenbelt isn't always very green.
26:19So we're still in the Greenbelt, but this is like light industrial, commercial property, isn't it, round here?
26:25Yes, I mean, of course, Greenbelt is very varied land.
26:29There's loads of the Greenbelt that's got existing buildings on it.
26:34Some of the Greenbelt contains intensive farming, business parks and industrial estates.
26:40The only purpose of the Greenbelt was not that it was green or that it was even particularly attractive.
26:46It was only to stop further development.
26:49So the Greenbelt doesn't form a useful social function in that sense.
26:55And Greenbelt land is often attractive for building homes because it's close to existing amenities and transport links.
27:04Paul's study looked at the Greenbelt surrounding five English cities.
27:09He located hundreds of areas of Greenbelt of limited ecological or social value within 800 metres of train stations for commuting.
27:19Enough land, he claims, to build two million new homes and more than meet the government's target.
27:26I would say that you need to identify those small bits of Greenbelt that really have very little value in terms of amenity or environment,
27:34which have good transport, and then say, you can build on these and there'll be a presumption that you can build on them unless there is some absolutely overriding reason why you can't.
27:44Sevenoaks needs more homes.
27:48The average house price in the area is nearly half a million pounds, 13 times the local average wage.
27:55The area doesn't have a local plan in place.
27:59And the council's missed its new homes target for the last nine years.
28:0593% of Sevenoaks is Greenbelt land.
28:10Paul's directed me towards a site that he thinks is ideal for housing.
28:18So this place is interesting.
28:20Paul said I should visit here.
28:22Justin, pleased to meet you.
28:24Hey, Ben.
28:25Hey, this is pretty cool.
28:26Yes, so welcome to the Broke Hill golf course.
28:39Ben Gearing is a planner for a private developer.
28:43So this is the former Broke Hill golf course, just under 60 hectares, so a large site.
28:4760 hectares?
28:48That's quite big.
28:49Big area, so lots of opportunities to do lots of good things here.
28:53Like build loads of houses.
28:55Build loads of houses, country park, new primary school, retirement village, a bit like the Thursday Night Murder Club.
29:00So, yeah.
29:01You make a good case, Ben.
29:02You're selling it to me.
29:03Well, come see the clubhouse.
29:05I'll show you some more.
29:06So just through here?
29:07Yes.
29:08There are a dozen other golf courses within a six-mile radius of here, so the area isn't short of them.
29:16This one has seen better days.
29:18It closed in 2017.
29:21This leads through to...
29:22Oh.
29:23...the clubhouse.
29:24It's not...
29:25I have to say, this isn't really what I was expecting.
29:27I was expecting, you know, cocktails on the lawn.
29:31The site is just over the road from a railway station in London's commuter belt.
29:37Ben spent months assessing the site and writing a proposal for planning permission to build 800 homes, a school and other amenities.
29:47We then went forward with a planning application.
29:49Very difficult to get planning in the greenbelt.
29:51It has to have very special circumstances to release land for housing, even if there was a large housing need as there is in Sevenoaks.
29:57But the planning application in 2019, that was refused in early 2021.
30:02So you were not back?
30:03We were not back locally, yes.
30:04Because this is greenbelt?
30:05Because it's greenbelt, yes.
30:07The local council's decision was supported by the independent planning inspectorate.
30:17Now, the government has changed the rules.
30:20A bit.
30:21It's come up with a new concept.
30:23Greybelt.
30:24Low quality greenbelt land that can be considered for building homes.
30:29So Ben's trying again, hoping the council will agree that this site qualifies as Greybelt.
30:37We believe this site can meet the criteria of Greybelt in national policy.
30:41And alongside that you have to meet something called golden rules, which are requiring 50% affordable housing,
30:47upgrades to local infrastructure, so cycling, walking routes, things like that.
30:50And also delivering high quality open space, which we would deliver as part of the scheme.
30:54Do you think Sevenoaks are going to say, all right Ben, build your housing?
30:57It's never that easy, but if only it was.
31:01But I think we have a far better policy framework and foundation to build on than we did previously,
31:09where it was far harder.
31:10So Ben, will the government's changes work?
31:13The work the government are doing now on planning reform and the changes being made,
31:17the impacts of that are over 5, 10, 15 years, not in the first year or two.
31:22Big or controversial planning applications, including building on the Greenbelt,
31:28are often decided by local councillors on planning committees.
31:32And the scepticism about how big an impact the new rules will have on their planning decisions.
31:38It will still be a local decision to determine which areas are Greybelt.
31:44If the Greybelt had been defined in a legally watertight way as identifying this type of land everywhere that it was relevant,
31:56then it would have been cut and dried and you could have built a lot of houses.
32:00But they didn't do that.
32:01They left it to the fuzziness of the planning system and therefore to local lobbying and the process.
32:07And it won't happen.
32:08The government has announced Greybelt.
32:10This won't resolve the issue of building on the Greenbelt unless you impose the rules on local authorities.
32:16Well, it will, because what we've done is we've given local authorities house-building targets,
32:21which the Conservatives talked about but then took away.
32:25At the moment we've got the problem that local councils are in a position to be able to vote against the new Greybelt rules and stop development happening.
32:34Yes, I'm looking at how we can incentivise councils on that.
32:39I'm also taking more powers to myself.
32:42So, where a council unreasonably rejects a scheme under the changes that we're making to the planning rules,
32:50I will be able to call them in and I will be able to reverse them.
32:55Another challenge for the government is balancing the need for new homes with all the other things it's promised to do.
33:17Like, for example, cleaning up polluted rivers and waterways.
33:22Hey, Debbie.
33:27Hello, lovely to see you.
33:28Yeah, lovely.
33:29Thank you for coming down.
33:30The country is so beautiful.
33:31Yeah, well, welcome to the Solent.
33:32Shall we get on the boat?
33:33Thank you. Yes, please, yeah.
33:40This stretch of water runs between the south coast and the Isle of Wight.
33:45Debbie Tan runs the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust.
33:50So, we are on the New Forest Coast.
33:53It's part of the Solent, so it's a nature reserve.
33:57Highly designated under European legislation and just really, really important for all sorts of wildlife.
34:02We've got some black-tailed godwits, we've got curlew, we've got red shank and actually in the winter we get hundreds and hundreds of these birds.
34:09It's a real spectacle.
34:10But this internationally important wildlife site has a serious problem.
34:16It's clogged up with green algae.
34:19So, you can see that's the kind of green sort of scum that you can see.
34:23Yeah, absolutely.
34:24Or matte, you might call it, on top of the mud.
34:25It chokes the mud, it covers up the mud, it stops the birds from feeding.
34:29So, you can see it kind of growing up the edge, it kills off the natural vegetation and the roots of that salt marsh vegetation hold the mud in place.
34:37And so, once that's gone, they start to erode and that's causing a lot of problem here.
34:42So, it's affecting the wildlife and the soil and then washing away the salt marshes as well.
34:46Yeah, it does.
34:47So, it's really, really changing the ecosystem, isn't it?
34:49Yeah, it is.
34:51The growth in algae is caused by too many nutrients in the water.
34:55These nutrients are chemicals containing nitrates and phosphates.
34:59Many come from household sewage and fertilisers used on fields.
35:04They wash into rivers and out into the sea.
35:08So, it is naturally occurring, but it's growing much, much faster because of over-fertilisation from too many nutrients.
35:16What's all this got to do with house building?
35:19New homes mean more sewage, which can mean more nutrients in the water.
35:25Since 2019, there have been rules which mean housing developments in affected areas need to take account of this.
35:32Before they can get planning permission, they need to prove they won't be adding to the nutrient problem.
35:38It's called nutrient neutrality.
35:41Developers blame it for blocking house building in areas across England.
35:46And it appears to have made an impact.
35:51In the three years following these new rules, Southampton missed its housing delivery target by 50% and in nearby Portsmouth by 74%.
36:01Developers were frustrated.
36:03Planning authorities were frustrated.
36:05You know, MPs got involved.
36:07And so we looked at this and thought, you know, actually it's quite important that we help Natural England to find a solution.
36:14Because what happens is nature's then called out as a problem.
36:18Nature is not a blocker to development.
36:21The solution here was for house builders to pay to fund an environmental project aimed at reducing pollution.
36:30Hey John, how are you doing?
36:31Hi Justin, how are you?
36:32This is a nice looking bit of land.
36:33It's very interesting, isn't it?
36:34It's fantastic, yeah.
36:36The Wildlife Trust bought intensively farmed land on the other side of the Solent, on the Isle of Wight.
36:44When we first got the site in 2022, we did some measures of phosphate in the ditches and the level was literally off the scale.
36:52And all of that, of course, is being washed straight down the ditches and into the Solent.
36:56By stopping the use of fertilisers and turning this land back to nature, the Trust is helping reduce pollution in the Solent.
37:05We monitor the phosphate levels in ditches now and the nitrate levels and they're down at 45%.
37:10You know, so we're already seeing big reductions.
37:17The schemes created the potential for nearly 4,000 new homes.
37:22These houses near Southampton are some of the homes that have already been built.
37:27But it all comes at a price.
37:30The house builders have to pay for it, adding between £2,000 and £3,500 to the cost of building each house.
37:39And in areas where there aren't enough schemes like this, some house building is still being held up.
37:46Nutrient neutrality has been a massive issue for the industry for seven years now.
37:51It's hugely frustrating.
37:52The frustration for the industry is that we are less than 1% per year from new homes in terms of the nitrates and the phosphates that are going into rivers.
38:00We want to play our part, but what's been unfair in this is that by a long way the greater contributor is agriculture and farming and the smaller builders are having to pay substantial amounts of money to get their sites through planning.
38:15Sometimes that's the cost that those sites can't bear.
38:20The government says it will unblock the nutrient neutrality bottleneck.
38:26And it thinks conservation schemes like the one on the Isle of Wight can help tackle wider environmental concerns and get more homes built.
38:34Under proposed new planning laws, developers could pay into a national nature restoration fund to compensate for any environmental damage.
38:46But there are fears this will weaken protection for nature.
38:51When people hear you say, build, baby, build, understandably, they'll think, well, he's going to bulldoze through environmental regulations.
38:59I'm going to bulldoze through the barriers that are stopping me people in this country reaching their aspiration to own their own home.
39:08But is that going to come at the price of the environment?
39:11It's not going to come at the price of the environment.
39:13Where we see development, which inevitably is going to directly in the area where you're putting concrete in the ground, is going to damage nature.
39:20We will more than compensate for that elsewhere by restoring nature.
39:24But that comes at a cost, we went down to the Isle of Wight, about £3,000 for homes as a result of those compensation measures that you're talking about.
39:32Well, it depends in the way that you're...
39:33So an extra £3,000, you're pushing prices up, not reducing them.
39:36We're looking at the specifics of how it works in localities, so that we can start to lower some of the costs.
39:43The house building industry in the UK is dominated by a small number of big developers.
39:53In recent decades, they've done well out of rising house prices.
39:58Between 2007 and 2021, profits went up tenfold to £2.8 billion a year.
40:05They've since fallen significantly.
40:09The big house building companies build 40% of the new homes in the UK.
40:14So if the government is going to meet its ambitious target, they are going to have to be a big part of it.
40:22And biggest of the lot is Vistry.
40:25It currently builds more homes in the UK than anyone else, more than 17,000 a year.
40:32And it's so big, it started building houses not on a building site, but in huge factories like this one in Leicestershire.
40:40This is a wood that is used within our timber frame structure to make our walls, floors and roofs.
40:47The basic skeletons of the houses are built here.
40:50The frames for the roofs, floors and walls, and then shipped off to the building site.
40:56So what you're doing is you're kind of...
40:59It's like a house kit, isn't it?
41:00Like an airfix model for housing.
41:03It's quite a big place to get around.
41:05This place is huge!
41:10So we've reached the end of the line.
41:12We've reached the end of the line for now.
41:14This is a kit of parts, so the whole kind of timber frame structure is loaded onto the lorries.
41:19And then transported to our site.
41:23Vistry hopes these time-saving processes will help it ramp up the number of homes it builds.
41:30A normal building site might turn out 50 homes in one calendar year.
41:35We've got schemes across the country that are building 200 homes plus in a calendar year.
41:39And in the future, we think we can grow to over 20,000 a year in our medium-term plan.
41:44And we think that's a good contribution to the national requirement needed each year.
41:4920,000 a year, five years, 100,000.
41:52Phil, 1.4 million houses somebody else has to build.
41:56Only 11 big house builders.
41:58Can it really be done?
41:59To us, it's an ambitious target, but something that we want to help deliver and help work towards.
42:04And something that the industry is very keen on delivering.
42:06But critics believe the government's reliance on private house builders could spell trouble for their chances of meeting the target.
42:16Private companies will only build when they think they can sell and make a profit.
42:21With construction costs high, in many areas, making a profit is a challenge.
42:26And relatively high mortgage rates are reducing the number of potential buyers.
42:31So the fear is the companies won't deliver.
42:35A lot of the current government's policies are premised around private house builders delivering new homes.
42:42Now, why would we do that when we're in a complete crisis and history tells us that private developers don't deliver?
42:51Unfortunately, consecutive governments of all colours have, instead of siding with the people that need homes, sided with private developers because they've normalised a profit-driven development model.
43:03You've got to say that ultimately, it's profit-driven companies that can't see the interest in building the homes that are responsible for the deficit we've got in the housing market.
43:13No, that's not true. I think actually, like most private organisations, they're driven by growth, actually, and building more homes.
43:21If you look over those years, you'll see that they've always set targets for building more homes, and that would make them more successful.
43:27They're driven by growth if they think there's profit in it. If they don't think there's profit in it, they're not going to try and expand their operations, are they?
43:33And the problem is, they've been too focused on profits.
43:35No, I think actually, the truth is, this is an industry that will build the homes if there are buyers there.
43:42But even if the home builders hit the government's target, will it bring down the cost of housing?
43:50Will building one and a half million new homes actually reduce house prices?
43:55Well, I mean, there are a number of factors at play here. Increasing supply should mean that, you know, buying a new home becomes more affordable.
44:05But we're also seeing at the moment, for the first time in a decade, wages rising faster than prices.
44:12So that's putting more money in people's pockets.
44:15So should house prices fall?
44:17Well, I want it to become more affordable to people to buy a new home.
44:20People will hear that and think Steve Reid is saying he wants to see house prices fall.
44:24I know where you're trying to get me to go.
44:27People's home is one of the biggest investments they make in their life and we don't want to see the value of that investment falling.
44:33I want to see new homes being built and I want people to be able to afford to move into them.
44:37So you want affordable homes, but you don't want to reduce prices?
44:40I want more affordable homes, that's why we're going to build more homes.
44:42Doesn't sound reconcilable.
44:43We don't have enough.
44:44And that is one of the reasons that house ownership has become a nightmare for people rather than a dream.
44:50If you were to build 1.5 million houses, it would have some fractional effect on house prices.
44:56Fractional?
44:57Very small, because it would also depend critically on where they were built.
45:01If they were built where housing demand was strongest relative to supply, i.e. in London and the South East,
45:07that would have a much bigger impact on average house prices than if you put them all into a small, ex-industrial town.
45:14At Vistry, they've taken the decision to move heavily into what's called affordable and social housing,
45:21working with housing associations and local councils.
45:25Affordable homes are sold or rented for 20% less than the market rate.
45:30Social housing is around 50%.
45:33The build is often subsidised by government funding and there's always demand,
45:37meaning for a developer, it can be a more predictable and stable business than the private market alone.
45:45So we are a partnerships developer.
45:47We deliver a hell of a lot of affordable homes.
45:49We deliver around 35% of our homes for private and 65% as affordable and private rents.
45:55And that is very important to us.
45:58Vistry projects have received more than a quarter of a billion pounds in government funding since 2021.
46:05But realistically, you can only build houses if you can sell them for a profit.
46:09Also, I mean, in terms of financial sustainability, you kind of have to make a profit in order to do that.
46:15Of course, all of us who are operating in this space have to make money.
46:18But there is more to this than just that as an outcome.
46:21You know, we feel there is a social requirement for us to be part of the solution.
46:26And, you know, the fact that we're very focused on affordable,
46:29it is really important to us to ensure we help solve the problem.
46:35The main type of social housing used to be council homes, directly paid for and owned by local councils.
46:47Rents were controlled, tenancies often for life.
46:50For 30 years after the war, councils built more than 100,000 homes a year.
46:56At their peak in the late 70s, nearly a third of all homes in England were council homes.
47:02But then everything changed.
47:05We were elected to extend home ownership.
47:08And we gave council tenants the right to buy their own homes.
47:12Nearly three quarters of a million more council tenants have either bought or are buying their homes.
47:19The right to buy scheme meant that long-term tenants could buy their properties at a discounted price.
47:26It's been hugely popular and given millions of less well-off families the opportunity to own their own home.
47:32Since right to buy was introduced, two million social homes have been sold this way in England.
47:41Only half have been replaced.
47:43Over four in ten homes that were sold under the right to buy are now owned and rented out for a profit by private landlords.
47:52So we've literally taken a public asset that was good for our country and we've given it over to the private sector
47:58to allow landlords to make a profit off the fact that people need somewhere to live.
48:04I've come to Stroud in Gloucestershire where housing is a hot topic.
48:18It's near the M5 and on a main railway line.
48:22Commuters can get to Bristol, even London.
48:26So house prices in this area have gone up so much that now the average house price here is ten times the average local wage.
48:34And that's priced many local people out of the market.
48:38The parish of Eastington, just outside Stroud and bang on the motorway, is feeling the impact.
48:44They've not been short of proposals for new houses, but they're often not what local people want.
48:51Tom Lowe is one of a group of residents who saw the problems this was causing.
48:57What are developers wanting to build here?
49:00They tend to build three, four, five bedroom houses.
49:03One bed? Very, very seldom.
49:06So people here who are not earning very much can't buy the houses.
49:11And indeed, if the houses are built and they're for private rent, they can't afford that either.
49:16Over the years, the amount of affordable housing in the village
49:20has fallen.
49:22The right to buy happened in 1980.
49:24So you're looking at something like 175 houses in this sweep here,
49:30all of which were built either as council houses or as housing issues.
49:34Affordable, all affordable.
49:36And less than half now.
49:40It's meant that many local people have had to leave the area.
49:44If you think about extended families,
49:47we've got people here who are 80 years old and went to the local school.
49:52Their children were born here and went to the local school.
49:55Now their grandchildren have difficulty living here.
49:59Instead of just trying to block the property developers,
50:02Tom and other local residents decided to do something about it.
50:07They set up what's known as a community land trust.
50:12They got grants and raised money to buy this plot of land on the edge of the village from a local farmer.
50:18And teamed up with a housing association to build 23 affordable rent homes.
50:25What sort of properties have we got?
50:27Well, we've just got a couple of bungalows at the front.
50:29And these are for people to downsize into.
50:32And when they move out to the council houses or the housing association,
50:35three bed housing, they move in there.
50:38And we've got a three bed house elsewhere in the village or elsewhere in Stroud.
50:42That's freed up for somebody else.
50:43So you've got bungalows, one bed, two beds, apartments.
50:46These are all two bed this size.
50:48Yep.
50:49The bungalows are all one bed.
50:50At the very end, we've got four flats.
50:54People can only apply to live here if they have a connection to the village.
50:59Hello, Sally. Nice to see you.
51:02Come on then.
51:03Sally moved in nearly five years ago.
51:05I grew up in the village, went to the local school.
51:08I moved away because there's nowhere to rent in the village, really.
51:13Sally says she's had some bad experiences with landlords over the years.
51:18I bought a newborn prem baby back to black mold.
51:21And when I complained, they just wouldn't do anything about it and put the rent up.
51:25And when I complained about the rent going up, they said if I didn't, I'd be evicted.
51:29So that was it.
51:30I just had to keep paying and keep bleaching the walls, basically.
51:34So how important is it that you are here?
51:36Oh, very, because my dad's very poorly at the moment.
51:39So my son spends a lot of time with him, which I want.
51:42And it makes me going to work easier that I can just, five minutes down the road,
51:48I can even walk to my mum's house to drop my son or my dog off before I go to work.
51:53Just to have a decent garden and somewhere for my son to play at the front
51:57and not have to worry that someone might sell the house and have to find somewhere else.
52:02This is like our forever home, really.
52:06The project's success means the Community Land Trust is working with another housing association
52:11to build 31 more social and affordable homes in Eastington.
52:16The government says it wants to build more social and affordable homes.
52:20It's announced £39 billion of funding over ten years,
52:24which it says could help deliver 300,000 homes.
52:29Is it enough?
52:30No.
52:31That figure actually equates to about £3 billion year on year up to 2029.
52:36Now, in the last affordable homes programme, 2021 to 2026,
52:41the figure was about £2.3 billion.
52:42So it's hardly, if you count inflation,
52:44it's hardly an increase on what the Conservatives were spending.
52:48Across England, there are more than 1.3 million households on social housing waiting lists.
52:54Some charities and researchers and MPs on the Housing Select Committee
52:58think the government should invest to help build 90,000 social homes a year.
53:03That could cost tens of billions of pounds of taxpayers' money.
53:10All of this costs money, and money is tight.
53:13So what's your economic argument for spending more money on social housing?
53:18As it stands, between 2024 and 2029,
53:21the government will have subsidised private landlords
53:24to the tune of £70 billion via housing benefit
53:27because private rents are unaffordable.
53:29That blows my mind every time I think about it.
53:32If you spend money on social housing,
53:34it actually creates money for the economy.
53:36We would see a decrease in spending on temporary accommodation.
53:39Some councils have seen increases of over 230% more,
53:44in many cases, on their temporary accommodation.
53:47Charities, researchers and the Housing Select Committee have said
53:50we need £90,000 a year.
53:51We have to take choices, make choices based on the funding that is available.
53:55I think it's a pretty good start to have the biggest amount of money
53:59to provide the biggest increase in social and affordable housing in a generation.
54:05This is a major step forwards in starting to tackle the crisis
54:10of homelessness and unaffordability in our country.
54:13We have travelled across England speaking to people involved throughout the house building process.
54:25Most people agree that the 1.5 million target is a tall order
54:31and so far the figures don't look great.
54:34Planning permissions granted for new housing developments have continued to decline
54:38since the government came to power and are at a record low.
54:43So, will the government make it?
54:46There's absolutely no way that we will build 1.5 million houses.
54:50No way? No way.
54:52You say that with real confidence.
54:55With the best that will in the world.
54:57But with the reforms it's got, it's not going to make much difference at all.
55:00And one of the problems with the housing system is it's a very slow,
55:04it's like turning a tanker around.
55:07It's going to take a long time to improve the situation.
55:12We're not going to meet it because the government have not changed tack.
55:15They have continued on the path of a developer-led model of housing in this country.
55:21For as long as it's driven by profit, we are going to have problems
55:24because profit will always be chosen over the needs of people.
55:31The truth is at the moment we're flatlining at around about 200,000 homes a year.
55:35I think the 1.5 million target is looking increasingly distant, I've got to say that.
55:40The Chief Executive of the Home Builders Federation says, and I quote,
55:46it is looking increasingly distant.
55:48Let's be honest, you are not going to meet it, are you?
55:51I'm absolutely going to meet that 1.5 million target
55:54and it will make the celebration all the sweeter.
55:57If people are telling me that I can't do it, of course we can do it.
56:01We can do anything in this country that we want to do.
56:04If you fail to meet your 1.5 million target, Steve,
56:07will you eat your Build Baby Build hat? Will you?
56:11Well, happily at the moment I'm dieting.
56:13Maybe the diet will be over by that point.
56:15But I do believe this very, very strongly.
56:17That target was given to me by the Prime Minister when I accepted this job
56:21and I accepted it.
56:22And my job, just like yours or anyone watching this show,
56:25my job should be on the line if I fail to meet my target.
56:28So I expect to be held to account for it.
56:30The government says it is going to Build Baby Build,
56:35but hitting that 1.5 million target is going to be a huge task.
56:40And even if it pulls it off,
56:42it's unlikely to make housing significantly cheaper.
56:45So what's clear is it will take years to fix this country's housing crisis.
56:52Divulging personal secrets to try and help one rookie cop taking a big risk.
57:01Blue lights next here on BBC One.
57:03And revealing our amazing natural world, Hamza's hidden wild isles.
57:07Press red to watch on BBC iClair.
57:22So if you do want, there's not clearTIN,
57:25you can convince you that you have to take away your target,
57:27there's only a number of
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