Good morning.
House prices in the UK have soared over the last 15 years. 1.3 million people are on local authority social housing waiting lists. In the last three months of 2023, there was a 16% increase in the number of people who were made homeless, and last year rough sleeping rose by 27%. Last summer, 109,000 households were living in temporary accommodation, up by 10% year on year. Projections show that if nothing changes, nearly five million households will live in unaffordable housing by 2030.
The scale of England’s housing crisis is staggering. Labour has promised to tackle it head on, with the new chancellor, Rachel Reeves, pledging to build 1.5m homes over the next five years. It is an ambitious target that would create levels of housebuilding not seen since the 1950s. Yet, despite this, yesterday Britain’s biggest housebuilder announced it expects to build fewer houses this year than last.
For today’s newsletter, I spoke with the Guardian’s social affairs correspondent, Robert Booth, about Labour’s new housing proposals and how likely it is that the party will be able to fulfil them. That’s right after the headlines.