Brown's housing promise

Last Modified: 11 Jul 2007
By: Faisal Islam

Gordon Brown promises to make houses more affordable - but can it be done without hurting those who already own homes?

"Putting affordable housing within the reach not just of the few but the many is vital to meeting individual aspirations and a better future for our country," is how Gordon Brown described what he says is a top priority.

He himself admits it is a challenge so just how does he intend to achieve it? And did his economic policies when he was chancellor help or hinder the situation he's inherited?

It is the new political mantra for a new prime minister: affordable housing.

Now it is as much of a political priority as health or education says Gordon Brown. But what has been happening over the past decade when Mr Brown was chancellor?

A relentless rise in prices, much celebrated, has seen housing becoming significantly less affordable on his watch.

Politicians are beginning to realise that the relentless increase creates pain as well as gain.

The result of all this is that the average first time buyer has to borrow 3.37 times their income to buy a property - that's the highest level ever recorded by the Council of Mortgage Lenders. The problem is the balance of supply and demand for houses.

So one possible solution, says the prime minister, is build more homes - increasing the supply. Here's the problem - it is estimated 213,000 new households are created each year.

But just 173,000 new houses and flats are being built in England - so supply falls well short of demand.

Under Tony Blair, the government target was to build 200,000 new houses a year by 2016.

Today, Mr Brown raised that target to 240,000 new houses. He says the new target will produce 3m new homes by 2020.

But who's going to build all these new homes? Here's what's happened to housebuilding under Labour.

The private sector has seen a small rise from about 130,000 to about 155,000 a year.

Social house building - by housing associations and the like - that's actually dropped back.

And council house building - well for that you going to need your magnifying glass - just a couple of hundred each year.