UK government launches ‘radical house building plan’

The Labor government announced on Tuesday the reintroduction of binding building targets for local authorities, removed by the Conservatives in power for the past 14 years.

The new British Labor government presented on Tuesday, July 30, a plan that it wants to be “radical” to help fight the housing shortage that is hitting the country. Before his landslide victory in the legislative elections at the beginning of July, Keir Starmer had promised to build 1.5 million houses in the next five years.

The Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner responsible for housing, announced in particular on Tuesday the reintroduction of binding construction objectives for local authorities, eliminated by the conservatives in power for the last 14 years.

The reform also proposes to authorize under certain conditions the construction in the places currently protected under the protection of the environment, and which surround the big British cities. This measure is controversial in many rural areas of the country.

“Today I have presented a radical plan, not only to build the homes we desperately need, but also to stimulate growth, create jobs and bring life back to cities,” Angela Rayner told parliament.

Acceleration on social housing

The Deputy Prime Minister, from a very modest family, an atypical profile in British political elites, also promised “the biggest acceleration in social and affordable housing in a generation”. At the same time, he accused the conservatives of having generated less than 200,000 new constructions this year.

The housing crisis can be explained, according to experts, by the low supply, high prices, high cost of real estate loans and skyrocketing rents. Hundreds of thousands of people are waiting for social housing and the number of homeless people hit a record last year in the capital London.

Several European countries are also in a housing crisis, which led the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to promise the creation of a Housing Commissioner in Brussels.

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