The revelation that half of England is owned by less than 1% of the population (Report, 18 April) is a stark example of how broken our archaic system of land ownership is. This inequality is a sign of the wider inequalities in British society, but also has a more immediate impact: seriously exacerbating the housing crisis. The high cost of land for new homes, and lack of transparency around ownership, are some of the key causes of this national emergency. An acre of land becomes up to 275 times more expensive when it is granted planning permission for new houses. This means developers are incentivised to build high-cost luxury housing to recoup their costs and often try to minimise their affordable housing contributions.
The government should change the law to rectify this, allowing land to be sold more quickly and for what it is actually worth, rather than the vastly inflated sums it can command. This would allow public bodies and not-for-profit housing associations, which build the majority of affordable housing in the UK, to afford land to build genuinely affordable homes. If we want to solve the housing crisis, we must take aim at our broken land market.
James Prestwich
Head of policy, National Housing Federation
from Property | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2UN98gR
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