Theresa May has pledged to step in and “repair the dysfunctional housing market” as she put increasing the supply of new homes at the centre of her Conservative Party conference speech
The prime minister said that while measures by the previous administration to promote homeownership, such as Help to Buy and Right to Buy, were the right things to do, “we simply need to build more homes”.
She said: “This means using the power of government to step in and repair the dysfunctional housing market.
“It means using public sector land for more and faster housebuilding. It means encouraging new technologies that will help us to get more houses built faster and putting in more government investment too. It means stepping up and doing what’s right for Britain.
She said almost “any question” about social fairness or problems with the economy came “back to housing”. Ms May added that high housing costs and the gap between renters and homeowners lay “at the heart of falling social mobility, falling savings and low productivity”.
The speech is likely to re-enforce a sense in the sector that the government is shifting its focus away from homeownership products towards measures to boost overall supply.