To be the party of opportunity, Conservatives must be the party of YIMBYs
Britain’s housing shortage is now so severe that even if we hit Labour’s now abandoned building target, it would still take half a century to close the gap, says Sir Simon Clarke
Last night I was delighted to launch Conservative YIMBY (“Yes In My Back Yard”), a campaign group which aims to transform Conservative attitudes to building the homes and infrastructure we need. We were joined by former Cabinet Minister (and sword-bearer extraordinaire) Penny Mordaunt, but for all Penny’s profile, something else stood out: our audience was packed full of young people.
They were there because we face a national housing emergency – one that is punishing young people and, increasingly, voters well into their 30s and 40s. The next election won’t just be fought on tax or immigration, crucial though both are. It will be fought on whether people can afford to put down roots, start a family, and build a life.
At the moment most young people can’t. Rents are soaring, while house prices have risen from four times average earnings in the 1990s to nine times today. Why? Because we haven’t built the homes we need. Britain has a housing deficit of well over 4m homes – a shortfall so severe that even if we hit Labour’s now-abandoned target of 300,000 homes a year, it would take half a century to close the gap. Yes, immigration must come down very, very dramatically. But even if that were to happen tomorrow, this profound crisis of supply and demand would still confront us.
Getting housing right
The pro-development cause is about more than numbers. As Penny rightly said, getting housing policy right also means regenerating our high streets, revitalising our economy, raising disposable incomes and creating beautiful places we can be proud of.
That’s why this agenda must now be front and centre for the Conservative movement – and why Onward, under my leadership, is making housing and economic growth the top priorities of our relaunched research programme. Because the centre-right must offer serious, credible answers to the challenges Britain faces – and that starts with building again.
Last week’s local election results were terrible for the Conservative Party. Putting aside Labour’s woes, they showed just how alienated so many people feel from our policy offer. At the core of healthy Conservatism should be the conviction that if you work hard, you should be able to afford a decent home first to rent, and then to buy. That was a key feature of successful, multi-term Conservative governments in the 1930s, 1950s and 1980s. But we failed to make that happen in government in the 2010s – and indeed ended our time in office running doomed anti-housing campaigns in miserable by-elections.
So we need to up our game, quickly and dramatically. The opportunity exists to seize the initiative. For all that Labour have talked a big game on planning reform, when it comes to their actual track record, like cutting housing targets in London – by far and away the most obvious place to concentrate new housebuilding – they fall short. So last night, I was proud to announce the first Conservative YIMBY research project: ‘Eight Quick Fixes to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill’ – developed with help from Jack Airey, former Head of Planning at No.10, and Lord Charlie Banner KC, the country’s leading planning barrister. It’s our first contribution to a better, faster system – but not the last.
The YIMBY cause is a patriotic one. It’s about unlocking opportunity, restoring hope and delivering for the next generation. Because if we don’t fix this crisis – if we don’t show that the Conservative Party understands the aspirations of younger and working-age Britons and is prepared to act – then we will not just lose votes. We will lose our relevance. And in time, we will lose the right to be called the party of opportunity at all.
Conservative YIMBY exists to make sure that never happens.
Let’s get Britain building again.
Sir Simon Clarke is the director of Onward, the centre-right think tank, and a former Conservative Cabinet minister