Why is the government set to miss its housebuilding target

The government will take about a decade to reach its target of 300,000 new homes at the current rate of increase, according to a new analysis. 

While the ministry of housing has rejected the suggestion, they’ve not explained how they’re going to get there and they accept that Covid will hit housebuilding from the “pitiful” levels it's at now.

The construction of 243,770 homes in 2019-20 is the highest in around three decades, which sounds good until you remember that this rate of building has given the UK a housing crisis.

It is well below levels achieve by governments in the post-war period, and house prices are still rising at record rates despite a global pandemic and economic misery.

But why is the government struggling to build homes so much? The chief reason, the Public Accounts Committee said last year in a comprehensive report, is that at its most basic level, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has simply not worked out a clear plan of how it’s going to do it.

The committee has urged the government to be more transparent about what its policies are actually designed to do and said it is “frustrated” that it has to repeat this recommendation, which it has made before.

But there are also other political reasons. The government wants councils to draw up local plans to build housing in their area, but these face huge pushback from Tory councillors and MPs.

Housing charities, such as Shelter, say the government is also simply not investing enough in social housing, which has historically made up a huge proportion of construction when Britain was building more than 300,000 homes – and no longer does.

Others say it is the planning system at fault and that there needs to be reform there.

But whatever the answer, the government is not on course to be meetings its target, and the pandemic won't help. Britain’s housing shortage will probably continue for a few decades yes.