Housing

The credit crunch presents a once in a lifetime opportunity to rethink our national housing system as part of a broader discussion about how to create a more sustainable and equitable society.

The housing system in the United Kingdom fails on numerous fronts. There is huge unmet need with five million individuals in need of social housing and a further 600,000 living in overcrowded conditions. Average house prices were nearly six times average annual earnings just before the credit crunch. The energy efficiency of the housing stock also lags behind other European countries.

What we're doing
At nef, we are building a programme of work that examines the relationship between housing, public policy and the economy. Taxation and finance will be key research areas. The objective of the research is to develop policy solutions that are capable of creating a more effective housing system that:

• Increases the supply of decent, affordable housing for everyone and helps reduce the UK’s very high levels of wealth-inequality
• Is less volatile and less prone to boom-bust cycles
• Encourages more productive investment of savings and wealth, which will be vital in the transition to a low carbon economy
• Supports provision of infrastructure and attractive, sustainable neighbourhoods that enhance people’s well being
• Reduces carbon emissions and fuel poverty, through incentivizing better design and build quality of new stock and the refurbishment and renovation of existing stock