Politics does move quickly these days. At 11:00am Theresa May launched her campaign to be leader of the Conservative Party, and Prime Minister. By 12:30pm her opponent, Andrea Leadsom, had withdrawn and the contest was over.
The elevation of Mrs May to Prime Minister will no doubt dominate the headlines so the speech she gave this morning to launch her campaign will likely be over-looked. Yet in a wide ranging address, she gave us her views on the housing crisis.
Unless we deal with the housing deficit, we will see house prices keep on rising. Young people will find it even harder to afford their own home. The divide between those who inherit wealth and those who don’t will become more pronounced. And more and more of the country’s money will go into expensive housing instead of more productive investments that generate more economic growth. Theresa May, 11 July 2016
The choice of language is interesting. For most of the last ten years, politics has been dominated by one main concern - how to deal with the country's fiscal deficit. The result was a series of decisions aimed at reducing and then eliminating that deficit even though they caused significant disquiet and political pain.
Here, Mrs May is characterising the shortage of housing in similar terms. Does that suggest more painful decisions in an effort to increase the supply of new homes? If so, will that go so far as a national review of the Green Belt? Only time will tell.
Whatever policy initiatives lie ahead, what does seem clear is that the political focus on the housing crisis will remain.
The efforts made by government since 2010 to increase housing supply are working up to a point. The number of new homes being built is increasing; it's just still well short of the number the country actually needs.
That means now is an ideal time to promote your site for residential development. The Strategic Land Group are specialists in promoting land through the planning system on behalf of land owners - and all at our cost and risk. If you know of a site that we might be able to help with, then get in touch today.
