Home Truths: The UK's Chronic Housing Shortage — How It Happened, Why It Matters, and the Way to Solve It

by Liam Halligan

Housing is increasingly unaffordable in many parts of the UK, with prices and rents rising much faster than earnings because, over many decades, far too few homes have been built. Since the 2008 financial crisis, the homes shortage has become more acute – sending housing affordability to the top of the political agenda.

Combining analysis with reportage, Home Truths draws on extensive interviews with cabinet ministers, civil servants, planning officials, leading property executives and priced-out homebuyers from across the country.

Informed by deep economic research and political access at the highest level, the book is a no-holds-barred critique of the UK’s chronic housing shortage, concluding with eye-catching policy proposals of direct relevance to both Parliament and regional and national government.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Economics

349 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 13, 2021

Reviews

[Paul Holden · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read but a little too much repetition.

[Colin Waters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Possibly the most insightful & important book that I’ve read in years. It digs deep into the uk housing shortage, its impact on society & the underlying causes. The book then proposes a manifesto of actions that would help fix this badly broken market.

The book does have some repetition in places, so it would be fit from some stricter editing.

I would love to see a new edition with data updated to 2024.

[Paulisbored · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is brilliant in identifying - and quantifying - the extent of the housing crisis.

It’s poor when it comes to the solutions though. The central premise is that high land values cause high house prices. In reality, the inverse is true. The way to drive down land values to to drive down house prices - making land, as a raw material needed for construction - worth less. And the way to drive down house prices is to build more homes - which means making more land available for development.

The supply of land for development is heavily constrained by the planning system. Across England, councils are aiming to release enough land to build 190,000 homes year - less than two thirds of the government’s 300,000 homes a year target. That’s why the planning system has been shown to be responsible for 34% of the price of the average home.

So first and foremost we must make more land available for building.

That will also make it easier for SMEs to enter the market and increase competition - helping drive up quality.

Halligan is right that planning gain needs reform though - and his proposed 50/50 split seems fair (although that’s not far off the current split in many locations).

[MichaelK · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book does a good job of explaining the causes of the UK's current housing crisis and suggesting promising solutions. I lack the required prior knowledge to adequately critique his analysis and solutions, but I found them broadly convincing, and would be pleased to see his policy suggestions in a manifesto.

As a reading experience however, the book is somewhat tiresome. It is very repetitive: there were points where I was sure I must have read this page or paragraph before, had I not put my bookmark back in the right place? His main points are repeated several times throughout, and as a result I ended up getting quite frustrated at the unnecessary length. A shorter book would have made his argument feel punchy and forceful, while the longer padded book makes it feel like he just ran out of things to say. I personally would have liked more in depth exploration of certain topics that were only glossed over.

I have a second book on the housing crisis on my shelves - All That Is Solid: The Great Housing Disaster - and am curious to see which I think tackles the subject more effectively.

[Otto Jacobsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent overview of the affordability crisis by the talented writer Liam Halligan. This should be mandatory reading for anyone in the U.K. Halligan I’d erigida the source of the affordability crisis the laws surrounding land use and planning permission, and the perverse market structure in house building that has come about as a result.

The only reason for not giving it a 5 star rating is the constant repeating of his tropes around house builders’ market power etc. It does not take away too much from the overall read, but does make it a bit repetitive. I would also have appreciated a more in-depth discussion of Stamp Duty Land Tax and a comparison with other developed countries.

To conclude, I again want to emphasise what a brilliant insight into the housing market this book was. I found myself having to put the book down at times as I was getting so frustrated at the vested interests (land owners and speculators, home builders and house owners in general) who are keeping millions from achieving the safety of owning a house and pushing the most vulnerable in our society out on the street. Bravo, Mr. Halligan.

[Bill Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on the problems of the UK housing market. Fully comprehensive, very readable, and full of proposals for how to fix it, many of which have been adopted by the new Labour government in its quest to build many more houses than 'normal'.