Why Burnham’s housing revolution won’t work
Despite giving a passionate defence of everything home ownership can give to a family, Burnham’s actual policies do alarmingly little.
Andy Burnham, the Labour Party's shadow health secretary, delivered a fervent defense of home ownership during the party's conference. However, his proposed solutions do not seem to effectively tackle the significant housing crisis in Britain, according to Emma Revell, an external affairs director at the Centre for Policy Studies.
Burnham emphasized the importance of council house building and reaffirmed the Right of Buy for existing tenants of social housing. He also unveiled Your First Home, a revamped version of Help to Buy, aiming to make it easier for young people to purchase homes with minimal deposits. Burnham proposed legislation to enable local councils to seize empty or substandard properties.
Although these measures might seem commendable, they fall short of addressing the scale of the housing crisis. For instance, the £39 billion budget for council house building might only yield between 14,335 and 15,494 homes annually, while the annual taxpayer subsidy for social housing is estimated at £79 billion. Furthermore, Burnham's proposal to seize properties doesn't consider the potential future government's decisions on seizing properties with substandard energy ratings, which may put a heavier burden on the taxpayer.
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