Making sense of the nonsense

Barratt Redrow, Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon, Vistry and Bellway hold 869,000 plots between them. Taylor Wimpey's landbank alone would take 19.5 years to build out.

Council stock fell from 5m to 1.7m under right to buy. Just 250,000 built since 1981. Burnham promised a revival - Attlee's ghost demands deeds, not words.

Babelfish commissioned CEBR to map England's brownfield sites. The result: 1.4m homes, £259bn in economic value and 370,000 jobs a year for a decade.

1.4m homes sit waiting on brownfield land. Building them would deliver £250bn, 400,000 jobs a year and £1.92 back for every £1 invested. The Big Five won't.

Barratt, Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey and four others face a £4.5bn claim. 700,000 buyers could be owed up to £6,200 each after the CMA's collusion investigation.

Angela Rayner on the delayed homes penalty: developers who sit on land could lose planning permission or see sites acquired by councils.

The Goat Maltings has stood derelict for two decades under Taylor Wimpey. Meanwhile 9,766 households wait for social housing in East Staffordshire.

748,000 homes stand empty and brownfield sites could yield 1.48m more. Building 1.5m new homes won't be enough on its own - regeneration has to be part of it.

Laura has bid for a social home since 2018. She lives with three children in a damp, mice-infested flat plagued by mould, mice, ants, flies and even sewage issues.

1.3m households wait for social housing while just 7,363 social rent homes are built a year. Babelfish finds 45 councils would take over a millennium to clear.

176,130 children are homeless. Councils delivered just 12,000 social rent homes last year, crushed by £29bn of historical debt. Clear it and let them build.

In 1945 Labour rebuilt Britain with council housing at its heart. Eighty years on, that social contract is broken. Protect renters, build homes, back workers.

A woman with breast cancer, homeless in a bed bug-infested hotel. London spends £5.5m a day on temporary accommodation. Britain's housing crisis is now ordinary.

1.4m homes have planning permission but sit unbuilt, councils face a £3bn shortfall, and service charges are soaring. Supply alone won't fix Britain's housing.

Britain's housing crisis is existential. Developers drip-feed builds to keep prices high while sitting on land. It's time for the biggest council build ever.

98.8% of landlords made a profit in 2024, their worst year. New data shows rent controls would still leave them in the black — and save renters £1,200 a year.