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.
Housing
Britain has enough brownfield land to build over a million homes, yet much of it sits derelict; too costly to clean up, too tangled in ownership to unlock.
Latest Housing articles
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.
Five housebuilders sit on 868,922 plots worth £275bn while completions hit a decade low. Landbanking, not immigration, is why a generation can't buy a home.
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.
One in nine MPs is a landlord - more than double the national rate. Reform UK tops the party table at 25%, and Nigel Farage owns two rental properties himself.
Developers hold permission for 1.4m unbuilt homes while Labour's £39bn sits waiting. Whoever replaces Starmer must get tough on landbanking, not cosy up to it.
Building homes is financially unviable across 48% of the country. Planning reform won't fix that. The real barriers are costs, land, infrastructure and demand.