While we welcome the government’s efforts to provide more homes for the young people who are bearing the brunt of the housing crisis, the negative rhetoric around renting is not going to do anything to help them (David Cameron tears up affordable housing rules).
David Cameron used his speech at the Conservative Party Conference this week to announce the expansion of the government’s flagship starter homes scheme. National planning policy will be changed to allow developers to build and sell starter homes in place of affordable housing requirements, in a push “from generation rent to generation buy”.
But by dismissing generation rent as a problem that needs to be solved, the prime minister is dismissing the very market that could prove the key to getting those hard-working men and women he spoke of out of their childhood bedrooms.
A thriving build-to-rent sector has enormous potential to deliver high-quality homes when and where they are most needed. Countries such as Germany and the US have booming rental markets, where people live in institutionally backed, purpose-built, high-quality rented accommodation happily for many years, and it has been encouraging to see the Department for Communities and Local Government recognise the value of replicating this success with a £1bn fund and dedicated build-to-rent champion.
With institutional capital now pouring into creating more homes, it would be a tragedy if that were lost in blind pursuit of making us a nation of homeowners, or policy that, through accident or design, obstructs what build to rent has to offer.
Ian Fletcher, director of policy, British Property Federation
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