A new independent committee, supported by the Family Building Society, has been formed to monitor and help Government make progress on mending the UK’s housing crisis.
The Government has made housing a key economic priority and announced a series of policy developments including the target of 1.5 million new homes by the end of the parliament.
The new committee will monitor progress and offer constructive analysis and policy suggestions on housing delivery.
As well as broadening the debate from the Government’s disproportionate focus on new build, the committee may also consider other options such as better utilisation of existing buildings.
It is the first time that experts across every critical aspect of housing policy, from design, planning, financing to building have been brought together to monitor the Government’s performance.
Sir Vince Cable has agreed to chair the committee.
Other members include Mark Bogard, chief executive of the Family Building Society, Neil Jefferson, CEO of the Home Builders Federation, Vicky Pryce, chief economic adviser at the Centre for Economics and Business Research, Ingrid Schroder, director of the Architectural Association School of Architecture, Professor Tony Travers, a director of the LSE London, Luke Murphy a Labour MP for Basingstoke and the Rt Hon Damian Green, chair of the Social Care Foundation.
Academic expertise and support will be provided by Professor Christine Whitehead of the LSE and Kelvin McDonald, director of studies in land economy at Christ’s College, Cambridge.
Cable said: “The Government has – rightly – put housing at the heart of its growth and social policy agenda.
“Our committee will endeavour to give a fair and informed assessment of its progress.”
Bogard added: “Housing really matters to everyone, every night when they go to bed. But housing policy has been a shambles for at least 50 years.
“Judging how politicians, councillors and civil servants are doing, marking their homework, matters to people. It impacts how they perform.
“We have a statutory Climate Change Committee. We have an Office of Budget Responsibility. Housing matters just as much. So, we’ve set one up – hopefully, in time, fairly quickly, Parliament will set up a statutory one.”
He continued: “Meanwhile, it is absolutely clear that the time has come for a coherent, long term housing policy. Successive governments have systematically failed to deliver a strategy that works. Everyone knows it.
“This committee aims to help remedy this by monitoring the almost weekly announcements on housing are aligned and work for the benefit of all. Our committee will highlight the good, the bad and the ugly of government housing policy and its delivery.
“After so many years of undelivered promises and failures, our country deserves a housing policy that actually works!”
The committee will meet around every six months, beginning in July, to assess progress and issue a report. It may also commission occasional papers on housing related matters.
