Politicians, government departments and the Bank of England should work together to produce “a realistic, coherent and consistent policy” to solve the UK’s housing crisis, says a report from the London School of Economics and the Family Building Society.  

Focus should be put on better use of the country’s existing housing stock as well as providing incentives for older households to move to smaller homes, says the final report from the organisations, called A Road Map to a Coherent Housing Policy.  

It says that while new housebuilding of all types “is obviously extremely important, and must be increased”, this at best only accounts annually for around 1% of the UK’s housing stock.   

What can bring larger and more immediate benefits is to use the 99% of housing already in existence more efficiently, it points out.

The report adds that the country’s existing stock would be better used “if older households, who own more, and bigger homes had more of an incentive to ‘rightsize’ and calls for the waiving of stamp duty for over-65s.   

The survey says: “This would free up homes for families and also reduce costs of care. Further, it would help the labour market and generate economic activity related to moving house — increasing tax revenue for the government.”  

“While we do need to build more homes of the right kind in the right places [accounting for 1%of stock], the key is to optimise the use of the existing housing stock [which represents 99% of housing stock] to help the elderly to downsize, growing families, and first-time buyers,” says the report’s authors Professor Christine Whitehead of the London School of Economics and University of Sheffield’s Professor Tony Crook.   

The study is backed by the Family Building Society.  

Its authors say the aim of the study “is to set out a coherent and consistent approach to housing policy starting with what is immediately possible and building on these to spell out a longer-term housing strategy”.   

Other recommendations include:  

• Coordination between key players to form a medium-term strategy, including the Bank of England, the Treasury and Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities as well as local authorities around the country  
• Reducing the time that it takes to gain individual planning permissions 
• Revaluing council tax bands, so that they are in line with housing values with the better off paying more  
• Stabilising the private rented sector “where tensions are concentrated” because of the lack of options to buy, or to rent social housing  
• Use regional bodies to negotiate where to build and how to raise funds for infrastructure  

Family Building Society chief executive Mark Bogard says: “The government’s latest long-term plan for housing does not address the issues highlighted in our report.   

“Specifically, there is no mention of making the existing stock more efficient, creating more social rented housing, proper support for home ownership, creating a more effective and affordable rented sector or setting achievable targets and updating local plans to reach those targets.   

“There has to be greater coherence, consistency and resilience in housing policy which is why we need a minister of housing as one of the great offices of state – not a repeat of the shambles of the last 25 years”.