The report ‘A decent place to live: Homes fit for Key Workers’ finds that the decline in funding for council housing is matched by a decline in the numbers of new homes being built. Estimates suggests that developer led markets will not meet the 340,000 new homes needed in each of the next ten years, in England, to address the housing crisis. To get anywhere near achieving this target at least 100,000 new homes, for social renters, would need to be built to contribute to that figure.
However, the report finds, that the role of local councils in directly providing new homes has been systematically undermined for decades, leaving housing supply to a failing market system. The lack of supply and the interface with land values has a direct impact on the numbers of affordable homes available for workers to rent or buy. At the same time planning regulations have weakened the ability to enforce both housing standards, and the volume of affordable homes, on new developments. This has exacerbated the crisis not only in housing supply but in housing quality.