Select committee: Built Environment Committee
Conclusion 45
1st Report - Meeting housing demand
Published 10 Jan 2022
Built Environment Committee Meeting the UK’s housing demand All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The increased cost of owning a home is reflected in the fact that, between 1991 and 2003, about 40% of people whose parents were homeowners had become homeowners themselves by the age of 30; this dropped to 25% between 2004 and 2017. Over the same period, the figures decreased from 19% to 9% for those whose parents were not homeowners. 82 Additionally, the “traditional preference” for couples to become homeowners before having their first child has been “undermined by rising unaffordability and housing uncertainty.” 83 This is particularly the case in London and the South East, where affordability pressures are most severe. Figure 6: Average UK house prices Source: Office for National Statistics, ‘UK House price Index: January 2021’: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/ bulletins/housepriceindex/january2021#uk-house-prices [accessed 16 December 2021]
From: Built Environment Committee, 1st Report - Meeting housing demand, 10 January 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 28 March 2022 (deadline 10 March 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government welcomes the Committee's report and says it is "taking action on a number of the issues identified", agreeing with some recommendations while disagreeing with others, including on home ownership schemes and the Apprenticeship Levy.
- It "disagrees with the report's assessment that homeownership schemes do not provide good value for money", citing independent evaluations and its own evaluation of Help to Buy.
- On older people's housing, it is launching a new taskforce "this year", chaired by the Minister for Housing, to look at better choice, quality and security of housing.
- It does "not intend to set out a proportion" of Affordable Homes Programme funding for social housing, though "around half" of the affordable homes are to be for social and affordable rent.
- On the Apprenticeship Levy it says it has "no plans to review" it. On planning fees it is "exploring options" to increase them, and on local plans it will make an announcement "in due course".