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Labour’s spending review brought in a headline-grabbing £39 billion commitment to build more “affordable homes” over 10 years.
But – as with so much under Starmer and Reeves – the devil is in the definitions.
What, exactly, counts as affordable? And who benefits most from this investment?
Six books are gone – 44 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
Affordable for whom?
When politicians talk about “affordable housing,” it often means homes priced at 80 per cent of market rates.
In many parts of the UK, that’s still wildly out of reach for low- and middle-income families.
This isn’t a genuine solution to the housing crisis – it’s a fig leaf that leaves the structural causes of housing insecurity intact.
Labour’s plan continues the neoliberal model: subsidising private developers, offering incentives, and propping up an unaffordable market instead of confronting it.
There is no sign of a large-scale return to council housebuilding, even though that is what the country desperately needs.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
We need council housing – and lots of it
Mass public investment in genuinely affordable, secure, publicly-owned homes is the only way out of this crisis.
It lowers the housing benefit bill, provides economic stability, fosters stronger communities, and actually helps control inflation by breaking speculative pricing cycles.
Council housing isn’t a handout; it’s an investment that delivers long-term returns: lower public spending on housing support, reduced homelessness, better health outcomes, and more social mobility.
Get my free guide: “10 Political Lies You Were Sold This Decade” — just subscribe to our email list here:
👉 https://voxpoliticalonline.com
Why the private sector won’t fix this
Decades of market-led policy have failed.
Private developers have an incentive to restrict supply to keep prices high.
They sit on land banks.
They build luxury flats while millions live in mouldy rentals.
Housing has become a financial asset, not a social good.
And schemes like Help to Buy? They inflate prices and line the pockets of developers, while locking first-time buyers into debt traps.
The land problem: it’s not just about homes
You can’t fix housing without fixing land use.
Publicly owned land has been sold off.
Developers hoard land and drip-feed supply.
We need to reclaim control of land to make sure it serves public need, not private greed.
A Land Value Tax – taxing the unearned rise in land value – could replace council tax and stamp duty, disincentivise land hoarding, and fund social housing directly.
It’s a policy whose time has come.
Through the economic lens
- Neoliberalism: Trust the market, subsidise developers, keep prices propped up. Labour’s current plan leans heavily this way.
- Keynesianism: Invest publicly to stimulate demand and meet unmet needs. Mass council housing fits perfectly into this model – and would have real fiscal multipliers.
- Vox Political‘s view: Treat housing as a public service, not a commodity. Combine the best of Keynesian public investment with a rejection of market orthodoxy.
Six books are gone – 44 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
A better way
A serious housing policy would:
- Commit to at least 150,000 new council homes per year.
- Introduce rent controls to protect tenants.
- Implement a Land Value Tax to disincentivise speculation.
- Reform planning laws to prioritise social need over market value.
- End public subsidies for private profit in housing.
If Labour is serious about tackling inequality and rebuilding the country, it must stop tinkering and start transforming.
Homes should be for living in – not hoarding, speculating, or exploiting.
It’s time for policies that reflect that.
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Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
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The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
Homes for people, not for profit: why Labour’s housing plans fall short
Share this post:
Labour’s spending review brought in a headline-grabbing £39 billion commitment to build more “affordable homes” over 10 years.
But – as with so much under Starmer and Reeves – the devil is in the definitions.
What, exactly, counts as affordable? And who benefits most from this investment?
Six books are gone – 44 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
Affordable for whom?
When politicians talk about “affordable housing,” it often means homes priced at 80 per cent of market rates.
In many parts of the UK, that’s still wildly out of reach for low- and middle-income families.
This isn’t a genuine solution to the housing crisis – it’s a fig leaf that leaves the structural causes of housing insecurity intact.
Labour’s plan continues the neoliberal model: subsidising private developers, offering incentives, and propping up an unaffordable market instead of confronting it.
There is no sign of a large-scale return to council housebuilding, even though that is what the country desperately needs.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
We need council housing – and lots of it
Mass public investment in genuinely affordable, secure, publicly-owned homes is the only way out of this crisis.
It lowers the housing benefit bill, provides economic stability, fosters stronger communities, and actually helps control inflation by breaking speculative pricing cycles.
Council housing isn’t a handout; it’s an investment that delivers long-term returns: lower public spending on housing support, reduced homelessness, better health outcomes, and more social mobility.
Get my free guide: “10 Political Lies You Were Sold This Decade” — just subscribe to our email list here:
👉 https://voxpoliticalonline.com
Why the private sector won’t fix this
Decades of market-led policy have failed.
Private developers have an incentive to restrict supply to keep prices high.
They sit on land banks.
They build luxury flats while millions live in mouldy rentals.
Housing has become a financial asset, not a social good.
And schemes like Help to Buy? They inflate prices and line the pockets of developers, while locking first-time buyers into debt traps.
The land problem: it’s not just about homes
You can’t fix housing without fixing land use.
Publicly owned land has been sold off.
Developers hoard land and drip-feed supply.
We need to reclaim control of land to make sure it serves public need, not private greed.
A Land Value Tax – taxing the unearned rise in land value – could replace council tax and stamp duty, disincentivise land hoarding, and fund social housing directly.
It’s a policy whose time has come.
Through the economic lens
Six books are gone – 44 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
A better way
A serious housing policy would:
If Labour is serious about tackling inequality and rebuilding the country, it must stop tinkering and start transforming.
Homes should be for living in – not hoarding, speculating, or exploiting.
It’s time for policies that reflect that.
Share this post:
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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