Rt Hon Michael Gove, MP, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, has demanded a partial review of the London Plan focusing on industrial land and opportunity areas in the capital, and wants the average rate of delivery to increase from 37,200 to more than 62,300 homes a year to tackle housing delivery backlogs.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published a report on housebuilding and found the dominance of speculative private development paired with complex, unpredictable planning rules is the major cause of the long-term shortfall of new homes in the UK.

The Affordable Homes Guarantee Scheme 2020 has had a boost of £3 billion to provide low-cost, flexible, and long-term loans to help fund investment in new and existing affordable homes across England, including those for social rent, affordable rent, and shared ownership.  

The National Housing Federation (NHF) predicts that by 2045 around 2.3 million older people could be living in homes that don’t meet their needs unless the housing sector is given the tools and policy landscape they need to provide a solution.

Propertymark has co-signed a letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer ahead of the Autumn Budget strongly urging action on static rates of local housing allowance (LHA) and the lack of affordable private rented homes.

Without introducing measures that tackle tenant demand and landlord costs, property standards will reduce, landlords will leave the sector and rents will rise. This has been evidenced when rent controls have been implemented across Europe and the United States and is currently the case in Scotland.

Shadow Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Secretary, and Deputy Leader, Angela Rayner MP put housing at the centre of her speech to the Labour Party conference on Sunday 8 October 2023, committing to deliver the biggest boost in affordable and social housing for a generation.

Scotland's First Minister, Humza Yousaf, MSP, renewed the commitment to introducing long-term rent controls and new tenant rights under the Scottish Housing Bill, set to be enacted in 2024, plus, under the current cost-of-living measure, emergency rent caps and a moratorium on evictions will remain in place until 31 March 2024.

Ensuring access to appropriate homes is a key part of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee (LUHCC) inquiry that is open until 21 September 2023, which is also seeking evidence on the progress following a consultation on raising accessibility standards for new homes was published in 2022.

The Welsh Government has launched a Green Paper Consultation seeking views and evidence to help them understand the rental market, in particular, what factors influence landlord behaviour in setting rents and taking on tenants and what tenants consider is an affordable and adequate property.

Skipton Building Society has launched a five-year fixed deal at a 5.49% rate with a maximum term of 35 years for tenants who can borrow up to 4.49 times their income up to a maximum of £600,000 to enable them to get onto the property ladder without a deposit.

Propertymark has given evidence to the influential Senedd Local Government and Housing Committee’s inquiry looking at the supply, quality and affordability, current challenges, opportunities for partnership working with the social sector, the effectiveness of regulation, barriers to accessing the sector and the availability of data on the PRS.

The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee has reviewed the White Paper outlining the UK Government risks undermining its own proposed tenancy reforms with MPs in the Committee debate agreeing on areas and concerns Propertymark has highlighted. 

Propertymark reveals concerns and opportunities for the property sector and an analysis of market trends in 2022. Above all, we saw more people than ever looking to live in the private rented sector and seasonal peaks and troughs coming back, as well as a return to a buyer’s market by the end of the year that is the status-quo pre-pandemic.

Putting local communities at the forefront is the next step for the Bill, with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLHUC) announcing housing targets are to remain but are a starting point with new flexibilities to reflect local circumstances.

The threshold of the Open Market Shared Equity Scheme in Scotland – which allows people to buy a home without having to fund its entire cost – has been raised by 9 per cent to reflect rising house prices.