Boris Johnson’s Housing Headaches Aren’t Over Yet
His Conservative government has signaled it won’t be obsessed with building homes. That’s fine, but Britain still needs more affordable housing.
Better than what?
Photographer: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images EuropeFor a week that ended with a crowd-pleasing speech from the Conservative Party leader but little new policy substance, there was one notable exception. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government seems to have done a U-turn on its controversial “once in a generation” reforms to Britain’s house-building plan announced in August 2020. Whatever comes from the policy rethink will have implications both for Britain’s housing market and possibly the Tories’ political fortunes.
For years, successive British governments have pledged to address the housing problem principally by building more homes. The implicit assumption was that a crisis in affordability that leaves so many priced out of the housing market — one of Europe’s most expensive — stems largely from a shortage of supply. Johnson too promised to build more.