Why We Can’t Build Our Way Out of Britain’s Housing Crisis (And Why We Should Stop Pretending Otherwise)

By Steve Hesmondhalgh | Town Planner, Writer, Mild Cynic

The UK housing crisis has become one of those dinner-party subjects — like why trains don’t run on time, or how long it took to get a GP appointment — where everyone nods sagely, blames someone (usually “the planners”), and then moves on to pudding. But here’s the inconvenient truth: the problem isn’t just the planners. Or the NIMBYs. Or even the greedy developers. It’s all of them, and then some — wrapped up in a decades-long cocktail of poor policy, workforce neglect, and institutional amnesia.

Let’s start with the elephant in the bulldozed room:

Britain hasn’t built enough homes since the 1970s. But the number of homes built by the private sector hasn’t changed much over that time. So what did change?

 Simple. We stopped building council houses. And we haven’t recovered since.

 The Great Housing Myth: It’s Not Just the Planners’ Fault

 Let’s get the obvious out of the way: the UK planning system is a mess. It’s slow, under-resourced, inconsistent, and over-politicised. But blaming planners for the housing crisis is like blaming the NHS receptionist for a shortage of cancer specialists.

 A 2024 report from the New Statesman revealed how underfunding and staff shortages in council planning departments have created backlogs, with many local authorities operating with half the staff they need to process major applications efficiently【source: New Statesman】. According to Housing Today, planning approvals fell to a decade low in 2023, further bottlenecking housing delivery【source: Housing Today】.

But here’s the twist: even when planning permissions are granted, houses still don’t get built. Developers often “land bank” — sitting on permissions while they wait for better market conditions or higher profit margins. A 2022 Centre for Cities report revealed that 1.1 million homes had been granted planning permission in the past decade but never built【source: Centre for Cities】.

 So yes, planning is a factor — but it’s not the factor.

 Where Have All the Brickies Gone?

 Even if every application were approved tomorrow, we’d still face another problem: who’s going to build them?

The UK construction industry is suffering from a severe skills shortage. According to The Workers Union in 2025, the industry has lost nearly 100,000 workers over the past five years. Brexit, an ageing workforce, and declining investment in vocational training have combined into a perfect storm【source: The Workers Union】.

 The Federation of Master Builders reported that 60% of small construction firms were struggling to hire bricklayers and carpenters. Meanwhile, attempts to attract young people into the sector have been about as successful as trying to sell vegan sausage rolls at a Yorkshire working men’s club.

And let’s not forget — big housebuilders don’t do volume like they used to. The market has shifted from large-scale build-outs to controlled releases. Why? Because housebuilders, like any profit-driven business, prefer stable prices and manageable costs over flooding the market with supply.

 The Curious Stability of Private Housebuilding Numbers

Here’s the part nobody likes to talk about: private housebuilders have never been the source of mass housing in this country.

Private sector completions have averaged roughly 150,000 homes a year since the 1970s. That’s been consistent through Thatcherism, Blair’s boom, post-crash austerity, and Covid lockdowns. They don’t massively increase output just because demand rises. Why would they? Flooding the market risks lowering prices.

The problem is, while that 150,000 has stayed constant, council housebuilding fell off a cliff.

The Murder of Council Housing: A Slow-Motion Disaster

Let’s go back to 1979. Abba was still in the charts, and the UK built over 300,000 homes that year — 44% of them by local authorities.

Then came Margaret Thatcher’s Right to Buy. It allowed millions of council tenants to buy their homes at knock-down prices. For many families, it was transformative — and politically brilliant. But replacements weren’t built. Local authorities were banned from using the proceeds of Right to Buy sales to build new homes.

Fast forward to today: over 2 million council homes have been sold since 1980. Less than half that number have been replaced【source: Shelter】. Social housing stock has shrunk from nearly 6.5 million in the late 1970s to under 4 million today【source: Crisis UK】.

In a nation with a growing population and increasing urbanisation, that’s like burning your raincoat because it hasn’t rained recently.

The Rise of the “Affordable” Mirage

You’ve probably heard about “affordable housing” — a term so misused it should be prosecuted under the Trade Descriptions Act.

Most “affordable” homes today are built under Section 106 agreements — planning obligations that require private developers to build a percentage of lower-cost homes on their sites. But these homes are often (now) pegged at 80% of market rent or sale price — not affordable by any meaningful standard for low-income households.

Meanwhile, councils and housing associations, hamstrung by funding cuts and bureaucratic hoops, struggle to deliver genuinely affordable homes. The shift from grant-funded council housebuilding to “affordable” housing delivered via planning agreements has hollowed out the social safety net.

Politicians Keep Saying the Right Thing — Then Doing Nothing

Every government since 1997 has promised to fix the housing crisis. Tony Blair introduced key worker schemes. David Cameron made “Starter Homes” his mantra (they never materialised). Theresa May rediscovered her compassion, Boris Johnson rediscovered a hard hat, and Rishi Sunak… well, he mostly dodged the subject entirely.

Labour’s 2025 policy platform proposes 1.5 million new homes over five years, with some revival of state-led building. Sounds great. But will they have the land, the money, the skills — and the political courage?

Because the elephant in the council chamber is this: if we want to fix the housing crisis, we need to bring back large-scale public housing.

Time to Get Real

 Here’s what we need to admit:

• Private housebuilders will not — and cannot — fix the crisis alone. They were never designed to be the main providers of affordable housing.
• We’ve allowed the planning system to take the blame for systemic failure. Yes, it’s clunky. But it’s also being used as a scapegoat for broader political cowardice.
• We need to re-skill the construction workforce. That means apprenticeships, funding, and a long-term vision — not just poaching workers from Eastern Europe or waiting for robots to take over.
• We need to rebuild public housing as a legitimate arm of the welfare state. And not just 500 “exemplar” units in London. We’re talking 100,000+ a year, across the country.

What Would Harold Macmillan Do?

Here’s a fun fact for planning geeks at parties (we do exist): In the 1950s, under a Conservative government, Harold Macmillan oversaw the building of 300,000 homes a year — over half of them by the state. And he didn’t have AI, modular housing, or Homes England.

He just had political will. And bricks.

Today, we have the means, the knowledge, the demand — but not the courage. Politicians won’t say “council housing” out loud. They prefer euphemisms: “affordable ownership,” “intermediate rent,” “key worker schemes.” But deep down, we know what works. We just haven’t done it for 40 years.

Conclusion: The Truth That’s Been Sitting in the Corner

The UK’s housing crisis is not just a planning issue, or a market failure, or a temporary dip in construction output. It is a chronic condition born of political choices. For half a century, we’ve outsourced housing delivery to the market and neglected the public sector’s role.

We don’t need more pilots. We need volume. And guts.

So let’s stop blaming the planners, the architects, the junior housing officers, and start pointing fingers upwards. At ministers who won’t build. At policies that sell off social housing but don’t replace it. And at a national mindset that still treats housing as an asset, not a human right.

Sources and Recommended Reading:

1. New Statesman: How lack of council capacity exacerbates the housing crisis
2. Housing Today: Planning approvals fall to decade low
3. The Guardian: Has Labour laid the foundations to fix the crisis?
4. Centre for Cities: The Housebuilding Crisis
5. Shelter: Loss of Social Housing
6. Crisis UK: Housing Supply
7. The Workers Union: UK Construction Shortage