The General Election campaign: what’s missing?

Pic: @PhotoFeaver

There are so many emergencies, it is difficult to keep track. The emergencies in the health service and those relating to education and immigration are featuring loud and clear in General Election debates. These are important issues. But so are the emergencies in housing and climate; we are hearing a lot less about these, certainly at the UK level.

For housing supply, emphasis is being placed on planning reform to sort out the problem. But making securing planning permission easier doesn’t mean that the housing built will be any more affordable for those who need it. The house building industry has never built the numbers of homes talked about by political parties. The only times that over 300,000 homes a year were built in the UK was when large-scale council-housing building programmes were underway. For example, in 1975, ‘76 and ‘77 – the number of homes built by local authorities was approximately the same as the number built by the private sector – around 145,000 – 155,000. Why would the mainstream house builders increase supply to the extent that house prices fall significantly?

The need to retrofit the homes that have already been built also demands far more attention than it has received to date. This is where the climate and housing emergencies intersect. Too much emphasis has been placed on householders shifting to heat pumps while basics such as ensuring sufficient levels of insulation have not been addressed. Again, lessons can be drawn from the past – local authority-led enveloping schemes improved the external fabric of all homes in an area. We have yet to see an adequate proposal to address energy efficiency in our homes that works for all tenures and that can operate at the scale and pace required.

Another place where the housing and climate emergencies intersect is empty homes in our communities. Despite various schemes over the decades such as grants and loans, the number of empty homes across Wales has not significantly reduced; the latest statistics show that long-term empty homes number more than 22,000. They represent a wasted resource at a time when record numbers of people are living in temporary accommodation (5,700 household recorded in July-Sept 2023).      

There are clear links between the housing emergency and the emergencies that are getting far more attention in the run-up to the General Election – everyone having access to a decent, affordable home would mean reduced demand on the NHS and would support the education of children. Addressing the housing emergency of supply and quality could provide jobs and training opportunities, support local supply chains for construction materials and, importantly, help enable people to reach their potential.

Interestingly, the Welsh election manifestos have more to say about housing than we are hearing about at a UK level, but none of them are up front about the scale of investment in social housing needed if the headline aims of a right to adequate housing and ending homelessness in Wales are to be achieved.

Cardiff Civic Society will keep on making the case for affordable, energy efficient homes for citizens of our city. We need to see more focus on, and investment in this from all levels of Government.    

30 June 2024