Michael Gove has admitted that Britain’s housing crisis is even “worse” than widely believed, as he waded into the cabinet row over immigration.
The levelling up secretary suggested that the UK does not have enough homes to cope with record-high net migration levels. Mr Gove also admitted that governments “have not built enough homes overall for generations”, as Britain continues to suffer from an acute shortage.
The astonishing admission comes as his close cabinet ally Kemi Badenoch said she was “pushing” for Rishi Sunak to take “much tougher measures” to get net migration down.
The business secretary added to pressure on the PM, after sacked home secretary Suella Braverman’s camp revealed details of an alleged pact with Mr Sunak to crackdown on visa numbers.
And The Independent understands a response to the record-high migration figures has been delayed by different departments continuing to argue about how far Mr Sunak should go with a crackdown on visas.
Asked if housing levels were not enough to cope with rising immigration levels, Mr Gove told Times Radio: “Yes. In fact, I think actually the situation is, if anything, worse than you depict. It is the case that the migratory flows put more pressure on housing, but we haven’t built enough homes overall for generations.”
With record net migration of 745,000 in 2022, the government would need to massively increase housebuilding and significantly reduce immigration to meet the challenge, the levelling up secretary said.
“I think we need to do both,” said Mr Gove. “I think it’s important when we’re looking at the migration figures to recognise that some of these figures are students, some of these figures are Ukrainian refugees, some of them are British nationals from Hong Kong. But you are right, we do need to bring migration down. And you’re also correct, we do need to build more homes,” he added.
Mr Gove claimed that the Tory government would hit its target of a million new homes in this parliament – even though the party had ditched it previous manifesto promise of 300,000 a year.
The levelling up secretary said he was “absolutely confident” his leasehold reform bill – to be introduced in parliament later – would pass before the general election. New houses in England and Wales will be freehold from the outset. But campaigners have expressed concern that the sale and purchase of leasehold flats will still not be banned.
The standard lease extension term will be increased from 90 years to 990 years for both houses and flats, with ground rent reduced to £0. This will ensure that leaseholders can enjoy secure ground rent-free ownership of their properties for years to come, without the hassle and expense of future lease extensions.
Meanwhile, Ms Badenoch, the business secretary, said she wanted Mr Sunak to do “whatever it takes” to bring down net migration. “I certainly will be pushing for the strongest measures possible,” she told LBC.
It comes as Ms Braverman’s camp revealed details of a “secret” four-point migration plan Mr Sunak is said to have agreed with her as he sought her support to become PM last year. He promised to raise the salary threshold for migrants to £40,000 as part of a series of measures to bring down migration, Ms Braverman’s allies said.
Other parts of the plan included closing down the graduate visa route, restricting the number of dependents migrants can bring to the UK and prioritising overseas students applying for Russell Group universities. Grilled on Ms Braverman’s claims of broken promises, the PM’s official spokesman said No 10 does not “recognise that characterisation” of deals made during the leadership bid.
No 10 also said on Monday that the Rwanda asylum plan is not a “silver bullet” in stopping Channel crossings, amid right-wing Tory unease about home secretary James Cleverly’s comment that the deportation plan is not the “be all and end all”.
Downing Street declined to set out a timeline of new Rwanda legislation or a revised treaty with the central African country – saying it would be “weeks” away despite Mr Cleverly’s previous claim it would be “days”. It follows reports Rwanda was refusing to sign a treaty that would include British officials’ involvement in its legal system.
Despite being close political allies, Ms Badenoch reportedly fell out with Ms Gove over an alleged affair with one of her friends. A source told The Times it caused a “significant deterioration” between the two cabinet colleagues.
London's homelessness crisis deepens as people in temporary accommodation hits record high
The number of households in temporary accommodation in England has hit a record high of 105,750 - with the picture also worsening in London.
Government stats published on Thursday showed the total number of children in temporary accommodation in England has also reached a record high, rising to 138,930 at the end of June. More than 82,000 of those are in the capital. The data shows that 60,580 households in London were living in temporary accommodation, with 45,170 households in temporary accommodation in the rest of England.
This is worse than the same period last year, June 2022, where there were 56,340 temporary accommodation households in the capital.
The new record of more than 82,000 children living in temporary accommodation in London is nearly 6,000 higher than last year’s figure of 74,470 at the end of June. Newham had the highest rate of temporary accommodation in London for June 2023, with 50.2 households per 1,000 households, followed by Redbridge (27.19), Southwark, (25.94), Hackney (24.62), and Kensington & Chelsea (24.38).
Out of borough placements, where homeless families are placed in temporary accommodation outside their local area, was also particularly prevalent in London. Nearly 80% of out of district placements were from London councils.
Campaigners have warned this often leaves homeless families stranded from support networks, schools and work, but London boroughs point to the fact that availability of homes is better outside of the capital. Housing charity Shelter said the figure for children in temporary accommodation is "yet another shameful record in the housing emergency".
Shelter chief executive Polly Neate said "today we've hit yet another shameful record in the housing emergency, with nearly 139,000 children now facing spending Christmas without a safe and secure place to call home."
She blamed "decades of failure to build enough social homes combined with record-high private rents" and said many are facing "months or even years in temporary accommodation, where their lives are stuffed into cardboard boxes and they can be forced to move at the drop of a hat".
The number of households with children living in bed and breakfasts has almost doubled compared with the same time last year, soaring from 2,320 at the end of June 2022, to 4,480 at the end of June this year. Of all the households in temporary accommodation, 14,090 were living in B&Bs, up by more than a third (37.6%) from the same time last year, the department said.
Of those in B&B accommodation, 9,610 (68.2%) were single households, up 21.3% from the same time last year.
By law, B&Bs are only meant to be used for families in an emergency, and for no longer than six weeks. But the latest figures show that, of the households with children in B&Bs, 2,510 had been living there for more than six weeks, up from 1,020 at the same time last year.
The stats also show that 6,640 households were threatened with homelessness due to a Section 21 notice - also known as a no-fault eviction notice.
This was up by 10.3% from the same quarter last year.
The Government has promised to ban Section 21 notices through the Renters Reform Bill, which is currently going through Parliament, but has faced criticism for not giving a firm timeframe for when these will be scrapped. Tom Darling, campaign manager for the Renters' Reform Coalition, described the latest statistics as “stark" and said they are “yet another reminder of the urgency of abolishing Section 21 evictions - which are a key driver of homelessness, as well as a source of constant insecurity for millions of tenants.”
A government spokesperson said "everyone deserves a safe place to call home, that's why we are spending £2 billion over three years as part of a cross-government strategy to build homes for rough sleepers, give financial support for people to find a new home, and prevent evictions. We know building more homes is also a part of the solution and we are doing so as part of our long term plan for housing. This also includes our multi-billion pound programme to build thousands of new affordable homes, with a large number for social rent. Our landmark Renters Reform Bill will also give tenants greater security in their home, and last week we increased the Local Housing Allowance so 1.6m low-income households will be around £800 a year better off on average next year.”
Clampdown on Airbnb is diversion to hide government failures
A trade body representing short lets operators has slammed government housing failures.
The Short Term Accommodation Association says it’s analysed local authority data which shows the potential for almost two million homes - properties which have not been acted upon because of a lack of government funding for social housing. The STAA analysed 294 Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessments, Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessments, or their equivalents.
The supply of new homes they identify include those with and without planning permission that are seen as ‘deliverable’ by the authority. Councils are required to regularly demonstrate how they plan to meet local housing needs over the coming five years and beyond.
The STAA says recent criticism of Airbnb and similar platforms, and the holiday let industry in general, is a smokescreen by the government to try to hide its own failures.
A statement from the association says “the STAA believes that, while a registration scheme for all tourist accommodation providers would be positive, the proposals, which include a planning requirement for short term lets, have been borne out of attempts to distract voters from the inability of national and local government to ensure enough new housing is provided fast enough. The total pipeline of potential new homes dwarfs the numbers actually being built, with only 178,010 completed across England last year. The total number of homes in England is 25.2 million — but 676,304 of these are vacant (248,149 of them long-term).”
This year the government conducted a consultation on a registration scheme and new planning requirements for short term lets in England. The STAA is calling for a registration scheme for all hotel and lodging operators, which would provide the basis for any future hospitality tourism tax.
The short term rental sector contributed £27.7 billion to the UK economy in 2021, directly supporting 94,000 jobs, according to Oxford Economics.
Andy Fenner, chief executive of the STAA, said “we know there’s a housing crisis, what we can’t understand is why no one’s doing anything about it. Homes are just waiting to be built, but housebuilding in this country continues at a snail’s pace. Meanwhile one of the most vibrant parts of the tourism industry is taking the blame and that’s a mistake. Councils routinely talk about housing need but that doesn’t address the fundamental feature of a housing crisis, which is that there aren’t enough homes at affordable prices. Only housebuilding and a proper remedy for the scourge of empty homes will give the country what it needs, which is new supply. Only then will it be seen that, to solve the housing crisis, we don’t need to disrupt one of the most exciting new parts of the tourism economy.
Singling out holiday let industry is a move against tourism itself and we look forward to forging a better way ahead with the next government. It would be a real shame, and a blow to tourism itself, if England followed Scotland’s example, where holiday let owners who bring both money and jobs into local economies are now being punished and deterred from operating.”