The Government looks set to miss its house building target by over 30,000, a new PAC report published today has revealed.
A report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has found that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) expects to achieve 157,000 new homes in its 2016-2021 programme of house building against a public target of 180,000.
The Government has committed to building 300,000 new homes overall every year by the mid-2020s.
However, according to the PAC report, the DLUHC does not understand the risks to house building targets posed by factors such as cost inflation and labour shortages, which means it could miss even the low 157,000 target.
The department has also not set a target for how many new builds should be affordable, according to the report. The PAC found that half of the homes in the 2021 programme will be for ownership rather than rent.
The committee also said that councils have few powers to insist that housing providers build the right type of homes for local people. It called on the DLUHC to publish transparent data on where homes are built by local authority, or information about the type or size of homes in annual reports to the committee.
Chair of the committee, Meg Hillier MP, said: ‘The Government knows affordable rented homes offer the best value for money. Many people in high-cost areas simply can’t afford to rent privately or buy their own home and there’s a desperate need for affordable, secure rented homes. But amid all the building targets there isn’t one for affordable or socially rented homes.
‘Local authorities know where and what homes must be built to address the national housing crisis but don’t have the power to act. The human cost of inaction is already affecting thousands of households and now the building programme is hitting the challenges of increased building costs. This does not augur well for “generation rent” or those in desperate need of genuinely affordable homes.’
Responding to the PAC report, Cllr Darren Rodwell, London Councils’ executive member for Regeneration, Housing & Planning, said: ‘We desperately need more affordable homes in the capital if we’re to tackle our massive housing pressures. London’s affordability crisis is driving up homelessness and undermining our future as an economically dynamic and socially sustainable city.
‘Boroughs are boosting housebuilding as much as we can, but we face immense challenges – including fast-rising costs within the construction sector and tight budget constraints.
‘Given the increasing scale of these challenges, we want to work with the government in ramping up the support available to social housing providers and preventing a slump in the delivery of new affordable homes. London boroughs will continue to make the case for more investment in housebuilding, which will pay enormous dividends and help us achieve our shared goals of ending homelessness and securing economic growth.’
A DLUHC spokesperson said: 'The Secretary of State agrees with the committee that we must build more homes for social rent. Increasing the number of genuinely affordable homes is central to our levelling up mission and we’re investing £11.5 billion to build more of the affordable, quality homes this country needs.
'Before the pandemic we had reached the highest rate of housebuilding in 30 years and since 2010 we have built more than 630,000 affordable homes in England, including 162,000 for social rent. But there is much more to do and we look forward to working with the committee on their recommendations.'
