By Ric Blenkharn

Published 26th Aug 2024, 06:00 BST

Equating to 300,000 homes a year, this is a massive challenge for the country. The resources needed at every stage of development will be under huge pressure, from design, planning through to the physical construction of homes. Even after World War Two, the Government attempted to solve these issues by building over 1.2 million new homes between 1946 and 1951. It is clear then, that the challenge facing the country will be significant.

Where you build new homes will be under the spotlight. Building them in rural, green belt land will raise significant opposition. Building on brownfield sites will be expensive due to demolition and remediation costs.

Constructing new towns will require significant planning over a long period of time. I don’t have any answers other than the industry must work constructively to address the issue if we are to provide for the current and future generations.

Housing in rural areas is particularly problematic, where house costs are significantly higher than many towns and cities. I have written before about the notion of building a small number of affordable homes in villages.

According to parliament there are 6,116 villages in the UK, so even if we build ten homes in each village, this will only create 61,160, a fraction of the perceived overall need.

The National Housing Federation says: “England is in a housing emergency. This crisis is affecting our physical and mental health, our life chances and our financial security. It’s holding back our economy and costing our country billions.

"It’s breaking down our communities and driving families and keyworkers into financial hardship, away from work, schools and support networks.

"Right now, there are 8.5 million people in England who can’t access the housing they need.”

The solution will be varied. There is dire need to get empty homes filled. According to government data, there were around 250,000 empty homes in 2023 for a myriad of reasons.

Clearly efforts need to be made to get these filled and into use as soon as possible. There is a rising trend for second homes and it is estimated that over two million households own at least one other property.

These will either be seen as investments or as holiday homes. Perhaps this aspiration needs to be challenged by the planning process, to negate the proliferation of second homes in rural areas, which blight the needs of local people?

We should encourage downsizing, so that appropriate homes are built for the ageing population freeing up the larger homes for families.

We need to encourage off site manufacture so homes can be built more quickly. We need large new communities with infrastructure and the need for homes must be met, for the welfare and security of our current and future generations. Some challenge!

Why we must rise to the challenge of building more homes