Eastleigh Borough Council Leader Keith House says “yes we can”.
Let’s start by winding back the clock to thirty, perhaps forty years ago, and thinking about the life chances of early twenty-somethings, starting out on careers. For many, that would have been after graduating having received a grant, not a loan, from the government to help get them through university. For others, it would have been after a technical education, and already being in a job for a few years.
Our imaginary couple, who met in a pub or club or at work, would then think about setting up home together. Neither had more than a typical starter job income. Yet by getting a 100% mortgage with no deposit they could buy their first home or, if their situation wasn’t so good, get a council house.
Simple times perhaps, but that was the common story of the 1970s, 1980s, and most of the 1990s.
For the twenty-somethings of 2025, this is a story from a different time. And all because for more than 50 years, we have not built enough homes. The problem started in the early 1970s, with a broke-Britain taking financial instruction from the International Monetary Fund, then compounded by Margarat Thatcher’s housing policies that took councils away from housing delivery, and even sold off the housing stock they had delivered. Despite governments of all colours since then, little has changed.
Britain has now suffered 50 years of reliance on the private sector to build new homes, topped up by limited grants to housing associations and from planning agreements to build a small number each year of so-called “affordable” homes. The result is that the period from the 1950s to the 1970s, when councils built between a third and half all new homes to meet housing need, has been replaced by nearly two generations of undersupply with rising prices pushing millions into market rent homes, often on short-term tenancies and with little control of maintenance. That, or staying at home with an increasingly tired Mum and Dad.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Councils can and must step into the void, once again take charge of increasing supply and directly intervening in the broken housing market. It is a liberal cause to improve life-changes right up there with tackling climate change and moving health policy to prevention from cure. Yet still so many believe councils do not have the power to act. But they do.
Three areas stand out for councils to own housing as an issue. Planning, intervention, and supply.
Planning is the easy bit: Get your Local Plan up to date, based on housing need. More than that, this is about managing relationships with developers. Volume builders are often the biggest investors in a local community. We need to understand them, just as they need to understand us. Invite them in, know their business plans and get them to know yours. Work on the projects that work, helping them through the planning process. Discourage the plans that don’t work, steering them away from schemes that will waste both their and the council’s time and money. Build relationships so that each trust each other. It’s worth the effort and will reduce appeals.
Intervention is the next key: Don’t buy the viability argument for not providing affordable housing. Prepare bespoke joint ventures to get housing projects over the line, reducing the delivery risk for the private sector and gaining certainty on infrastructure first and affordable homes. What works for one scheme won’t for another. Need the school or a road built first? Negotiate it during or after planning. Consider pre-purchasing new homes for the council’s affordable or market rented portfolio to aid speed of delivery and improve cash-flow. De-risk by working with social landlords and Homes England on delivery.
Supply is the ultimate answer. Just do it: Buy land, directly deliver homes of all tenures. Yes, councils can do this, and those determined to fix housing do. From modest small sites to plans for several thousands of homes in new communities, councils have all the powers they need to meet and shape local housing markets. Borrowing powers work for projects with secure business plans, partnerships work for others. Think about need: why not develop and own market rented homes with lifetime tenancies, with the ability of tenants to buy in the future?
Can we return to a world where our twenty-something couple can buy or even rent with long-term security? Yes, we can, but only if councils step up rather than step back from fixing housing with the confidence that more homes is a solution not a problem.
Cllr Keith House has been Leader of Eastleigh Borough Council since 1994. A former Homes England Board member, he co-authored the review into councils’ role in housing supply for the Coalition Government in 2015: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-into-the-local-authority-role-in-housing-supply.
Lib Dem Eastleigh Borough Council is developing new homes from urban regeneration sites to a new 2800 home settlement in the Borough https://www.onehortonheath.co.uk/ with its own housing brand https://eastbrookehomes.co.uk/ now delivering new homes of all tenures.