New homes are unaffordable for a staggering eight out of 10 families, a new report by Shelter has revealed.
The current system of housebuilding in England is also failing families by producing high-priced and poor-quality homes in a system that is “rigged” in favour of big developers.
The report shows that typical new homes built today are out of reach for eight in 10 (83%) working private renting families across the country – even if they used the Government’s Help to Buy scheme.
The West Midlands ranked as the worst hit region, with a staggering 93% of families not able to afford to buy an average-priced new home.
Alongside being unaffordable, many new build homes are also poor quality. In research by Shelter and YouGov, half (51%) of new home owners say they have experienced major problems with their properties including issues with construction, unfinished fittings and faults with utilities.
Sheltered warned that the current system will never work for ordinary families because it rewards developers and land owners more interested in trading land at high prices than in building homes.
In its New Civic Housebuilding report, the charity is calling for a new model of housebuilding designed to deliver genuinely affordable, high-quality homes.
The report comes shortly after the Government described the housing market as “broken” and was critical of “fat-cat developers” during the launch of its housing white paper.
Graeme Brown, Shelter’s interim chief executive, said: “Big developers and land traders are making millions from a rigged system while families struggle with huge renting costs and have to give up on owning a home of their own, which has become nothing more than a pipe dream.
“For decades we’ve relied on this broken system and, despite the sweeteners offered to developers to build the homes we need, it simply hasn’t worked. The current way of building homes has had its day and it has failed the nation.
“The only way to fix our ever-growing housing crisis is for the government to champion a bold new approach which responds to communities to build the genuinely affordable, beautiful homes they want – as we have done as a country in the past. Until this happens, millions of ordinary families across the country will continue to pay the price.”
What is New Civic Housebuilding?
Under the New Civic Housebuilding model, a large number of good-quality, affordable homes with infrastructure will be created to meet the needs of communities.
This model of housebuilding was used to deliver the Georgian new towns of Edinburgh and Bath, the Edwardian Garden Cities and the post-war New Towns.
Under New Civic Housebuilding land is brought into development at lower price with strict conditions attached. Clearer, and lower land costs mean that:
- Homes can be built more quickly and sold at lower prices, while still returning reasonable profits to developers.
- Local communities can have real influence on how new homes are built.
- More can be spent on providing roads, schools and infrastructure that communities need.
