WhatHouse? readers have their say on future direction of government housing policy

WhatHouse? has commissioned a survey of its audience to find out what aspects of housing and planning policy they would like the new government, led by the Prime Minister Theresa May, to focus on.

The government appointed Gavin Barwell MP as minister of state for housing, planning and minister for London at the department for communities and local government in July 2016.

At the recent conservative party conference in Birmingham, Barwell said that he wanted to push for the building of new homes of all tenures, including some at sub-market rent.

Meanwhile, communities and local government secretary, Sajid Javid, pledged to introduce a major housebuilding programme and the new chancellor, Philip Hammond, has signalled that the Help to Buy scheme will end at the end of 2016.

The conference signals a departure from the policies of the Cameron/Osborne administration where the focus was on helping people to own their own home rather than increasing the number of affordable properties available for rent.

But what do WhatHouse? readers think?

Our survey produced more than 2,000 responses. Readers were asked to select their priorities for May’s government to focus on from 10 different options and the results produce three clear signals, illustrated by our infographic.

By far the most popular request from the survey widget responses was for May to abolish Stamp Duty for first-time buyers with 61% voting for this. This was followed by a request to restrict overseas purchasers to free up property for UK buyers with 46%.

The next four most popular options were to penalise developers for not building when they have planning permission with 25%. On the same percentage was a call to allow local authorities to raise funds to build their own homes with 25% closely followed by a request to simplify planning restrictions to make housebulding easier and quicker with 22% and on the same number, a call for the government to stop selling off council houses through the Right to Buy scheme with 22%.

Just a small number, 12%, want more focus to be put on homes for retirees, with 10% wanting green belt land to be allowed to be used for housebuilding. 9% want to encourage more high-rise building to maximise land use and the lowest percentage, just 7% want to stop subsidising purchasers with Help to Buy.

However, the clear response from the survey and the one option that the conservative party did address during its conference was to signal the end of the Help to Buy government equity scheme. This does not cross-reference with the priorities of WhatHouse? readers as it was the second least popular option that respondents wanted the government to take action on.

Our audience has provided a clear view on the issues it would like the government to address and we will be focusing on these in a series of articles that will aim to put the important housing and planning issues on the table in a call to action to be addressed by the government in the coming months.

View our Infographic on Theresa May here