IEA Director of Communications and Public Policy Matthew Lesh has written in CapX responding to proposals to expand housing supply if Labour wins the next general election.

Matthew wrote:

“Labour has grasped the essential link between planning reform and economic growth. Housing shortages prevent people from living nearby productive jobs. The lab space shortage in Oxford and Cambridge forces high-tech companies to establish themselves outside of Britain. The blocking of wind, solar and nuclear power has pushed up the cost of electricity and made businesses less competitive.

“The result of this system is to entrench intergenerational inequality and unfairness; it makes the UK less attractive to newcomers and prevents social mobility. In this sense, fixing the housing system should be at the core of Labour’s social justice mission.

“The Tories, on the other hand, have gone from promising genuinely radical reform after the 2019 election, to Rishi Sunak reportedly proposing a re-heat of Help To Buy – a scheme that does nothing but pump up demand and increase prices, often subsidising the already well off into the bargain.

“‘If we can’t do anything on housing supply we are going to have to do something on affordability,’ a government source told The Times yesterday. In other words: if they can’t fix the problem, they’ll just make it worse by throwing wheelbarrows full of cash into the fiery pit that is the UK’s housing market.”

Read the full article here.