Press Story

Plans that echo IPPR’s proposals are welcome, including landlords’ register and an end to no-fault eviction welcomed
But white paper overlooks problems like affordability and lacks the cash promise needed to help solve them, says think tank

Reacting to the newly-published white paper on levelling up, which includes aims to improve quality of rented housing, IPPR has welcomed the government’s ambitions but questioned its capacity to fund or deliver them.

Luke Murphy, associate director for energy, climate, housing, and infrastructure, said:

“A safe, warm and affordable home is vital to living a good life, so it’s positive to see the government putting such an emphasis on housing as part of the levelling up agenda.

“The white paper includes some bold proposals - many called for by IPPR - including a target to cut the number of non-decent homes by half, a legally binding decent homes standard for the private rented sector, the scrapping of no-fault eviction and the creation of a national landlords register.

“Yet there are also woeful omissions and glaring flaws. The government is right to include housing quality within the mission but has failed to include two other key indicators – stability and affordability.

“On policy, the proposal to remove the 80:20 rule on housing funding must not result in fewer affordable homes being built in London and the South East, where the need for affordable housing is greatest. Levelling down London is not a solution to levelling up elsewhere. The government should instead increase overall funding for affordable housing.

“Meanwhile there is no new funding to underpin the aim of reducing the number of unfit homes, or to enforce these plans in the private rented sector.

“Overall one is left with the impression – as elsewhere in the paper – that the government is long on ambition and short on the means to deliver. Targets alone won’t make the nation’s homes warmer or more affordable, cold hard cash is needed too.”

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

The government’s mission on housing is: “By 2030, renters will have a secure path to ownership with the number of first-time buyers increasing in all areas; and the government’s ambition is for the number of non-decent rented homes to have fallen by 50 per cent*|SALUTATION|*, with the biggest improvements in the lowest performing areas.”
IPPR is the UK’s pre-eminent progressive think tank. With more than 40 staff in offices in London, Manchester, Newcastle and Edinburgh, IPPR is Britain’s only national think tank with a truly national presence. www.ippr.org