The biggest surprise in this week’s much-delayed housing white paper is that it took so long to produce something so unimaginative. A good chunk of the “announcements” were existing Tory policies wrapped in a new ribbon. The claim by communities secretary Sajid Javid that the paper helps renters does not stand up to scrutiny (few people, in very specific tenancies will benefit) and, meanwhile, MPs warn that powers designed to prevent revenge evictions aren’t working, both because councils can’t afford to roll them out and tenants don’t know their rights.

Rumours that Javid would propose building on green belt land turned out to be false. Too many of the Tories’ core voters aren’t troubled by the housing crisis and are swayed by misleading ideas of what the green belt actually constitutes – less an idyllic National Trust scene, more undeveloped scrubland in many cases. This matters, because we need to build houses for those who need them quickly, and brownfield development is notoriously difficult. The deputy leader of Manchester city council joked to me: “We have a lot of brownfield land. I look forward to building on it in 30,000 years.”

People who’ve fallen through the net won’t get a home from Sajid Javid | Simon Jenkins Read more

On Newsnight, housing minister Gavin Barwell listened earnestly while three young people explained why they couldn’t afford to buy homes, but when Emily Maitlis pointedly asked why he wouldn’t allow councils to borrow to build, his answer was fudged: some platitudes about the country being skint.

This ignores two points everyone in housing has been repeating until they’re hoarse: if you want to up housebuilding, let councils build. Councils have a particular interest in housing people rather than simply chasing profit, and by stopping councils from building, the government loses more than it saves – in extortionate private temporary accommodation, and housing benefit in the private rented sector (nearly always more expensive than social rent).

But the government’s previous policies have done far more to worsen the housing crisis than this lacklustre paper can rectify. The local housing allowance cap, rising costs in private rented accommodation, benefit caps, sanctions and all other aspects of continued austerity have caused housing offices in councils around the country to buckle under the strain. Many councils, faced with this strain, would dearly love to build, and had planned to do so – caps on borrowing, withdrawal of grant to focus on starter homes, and the huge cuts doled out disproportionately to metropolitan councils have meant many have had to abandon their plans. As one councillor put to me, “We want to fucking build and they’ll pull every trick possible to stop that happening. They want to kill not just social housing, but local government.”

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Instead, we have councils committed to publishing an “honest assessment” of local housing need, ignoring the fact they already do this. They’re called “local plans” and put more pressure on councils while removing freedom to actually solve their housing crises locally. So if Javid and Barwell want to steal this idea, they’re welcome – my own plan to help fix the broken housing market. It won’t take months longer than promised and kill half a tree if you print it off.

Let councils borrow to build social housing. Let them keep 100% of right-to-buy receipts if you won’t ban the practice altogether, so they can replace homes on a one-for-one basis. Accept that the housing market is broken because you believed the invisible hand of the market would benefit everyone rather than simply shareholders and landlords. Let councils get on with solving the housing crisis rather than cutting their budget to ribbons and, despite professing a hatred of red tape, making it increasingly difficult for local authorities to provide the most basic services let alone the complex housing and social care people need.

It turns out it’s a lot easier to write a plan for housing if you care more about solving the crisis than upsetting voters. But people affected by the housing crisis vote too, as the Conservatives may discover to their detriment in 2020.

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