CML urges DCLG to heed its own look back at housing policy

The Council of Mortgage Lenders welcomes the evaluation of housing policy published today in a report for the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), the Government department which is responsible for housing. The report is an impressive look back at more than 25 years of English housing policy across all tenures, and contains a powerful range of recommendations about how policy can be formulated in the future, and the areas it should address.

According to the report, there are four key requirements for the housing system to function well over the coming decades:

• It must exhibit robustness to changing economic conditions and shocks;
• It must be flexible in response to economic needs;
• It must be able to respond to demographic changes; and
• It must adapt to rising aspirations in terms of both demand and the capacity to adjust existing stock and sustain neighbourhoods.

The CML strongly agrees with this assessment. The CML also agrees with the list of policy areas that the authors believe need to be addressed to achieve them - including greater consideration of demand and supply sides together, recognition of the symbiosis between the housing system and the economy; the need to reduce the barriers between the social rented and market sectors; and the need to reconsider housing subsidies in a wider social context (especially the lack of support for low-income home-owners).

Peter Williams, Deputy Director General of the Council of Mortgage Lenders, commented:

"For a quarter of a century housing policy has been dogged by a lack of joined-up thinking, as this report makes damningly clear. But against this rather discouraging backdrop, we are pleased that at last housing now seems to be featuring prominently on the political landscape.

"The CML believes there are opportunities to blur the boundaries between the market and social sectors, and to use subsidies and incentives far more consistently and creatively across tenures, to achieve a far more flexible and responsive housing market than the one we have today. We look forward to working alongside public policymakers to help drive forward the recent proposals for greater public-private funding mechanisms outlined in the DCLG's five-year housing plan, and to address the challenges outlined in this new report."

Note to Editors

1. The Council of Mortgage Lenders' members are banks, building societies and other lenders who together undertake around 98% of all residential mortgage lending in the UK. There are 11.5 million mortgages in the UK, with loans worth around £876 billion.