UK minister working up plans for state-owned housing developer
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/27/uk-minister-plans-for-state-owned-housing-developer-exclusive?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Posted by topotaul
UK minister working up plans for state-owned housing developer
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/27/uk-minister-plans-for-state-owned-housing-developer-exclusive?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Posted by topotaul
32 Comments
You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention.
Absolute madness that this wasn’t brought in from the get go when Labour got in
Or maybe just approve private developers. This thing will be a money sink.
Why don’t you provide a better education and work environment rather than feeding and sheltering the public?
Wow. That would be a big deal. Problem with current developers Is they are publicly trades companies…
Or is this a ploy to keep his job under Burnham
This is the kind of big announcement that Starmer’s government should have said was in the works a year ago. They really did have a comms issue though unfortunately
Would it be national state owned developer or the usual farce of 100s of different state owned developers strewn across the country.
State owned housing developer with a mandate to train apprentices, force developers and other companies like supermarkets that hold land hostage to sell would be a start. It doesn’t need to be cheap council housing, just decently prices homes for first time buyers or people genuinely wanting to move house. No landlords, no investment companies, regulations about who can buy and sell the housing.
That could even force the private companies to act better, build it or lose it.
Gee, so building houses for profit? Because otherwise it’s just building council houses. So will this state developer get an easier ride with planners or financial contributions. Because I can see a massive conflict of interest here.
Gobsmacked that bureaucracy has caused private development to grind to a halt, and the answer is apparently a public developer. Clueless
Sorely needed. We need to be building houses to home people, not for profit. We need to be training apprentices across the construction trades, something that is really not that straightforward for any would be tradesmen right now.
Instead of being strung along for 4 years on apprentice wages while being used for cheap labour as long as possible, the government could make the apprenticeship a natural follow on from NVQ qualifications with preferred placements.
Building houses is complicated, and requires paying the people who build them good money, something the state isn’t in the business of.
This is exactly what I was thinking the other day. You give Private firms 5 years to use land if they don’t build they lose it and ownership transfers to the state at the cost originally paid.
Hording land is the problem.
If Starmer went into July 2024 with this, his approval ratings wouldn’t be shit tier.
Shit, Burnham’s coronation into government might actually mean something.
Don’t believe it. It’s just begging for a job from Burnham
personally done right this is a remarkably good idea.
set up production to be steady so its constant work, at which point it should be 100% in house without needing to sub to contractors. bring in proper training stuff for the workforce too and it becomes a career choice with a bit of stability both in build and maintenance
go with solid designs, suitable technology from the ground up, e.g. design for heat pumps, decent ventilation, grey water reclamation, suitable insulation, EV charging & parking (obviously not all will have space), solar & battery etc – then a range of property sizes but largely standardised designs for low & mid density developments – including the required amenities
the hard part will be setting it up to integrate directly with local councils who should be the primary staff employers, the purpose being to make the next government going “oh we can see that off!” somewhat harder to do
need to see the details if/when they come out on how it would be done but this is something that could be started off quite small and scaled up gradually.
individual homes will cost more to build, because they will be to higher standards, but cutting out a lot of the middlemen taking their cut should see the end rental unit prices in an affordable range
even today ex 1950’s council houses can still be remarkably well built against some of the modern rabbit hutches
firmly though, think and integrate it, link to the education system for apprenticeships and training, firmly into local councils to manage the planning process and focus initially on government owned land
This is no use if they don’t make “affordable houses”.
Do not bother if you are going to build “family homes” costing more than £100k.
Fuck me these lot might actually try. Makes a change.
I hope this actually happens, it’s the only way to tackle housing costs.
In theory sounds a good idea but I get the feeling there will be some backhanded deals involved along the way to line their own pockets and probably not bring the price of housing down at all
This will inevitably fail because we have no money
If the market can’t do the job, which seems to be the case, the state should.
This is what Labour governments are for.
The aristocrats will be happy to be part of this by “donating” parts of their un-earned lands and estate right?
Now lets have a state owned bank that can lend directly to people.
Then ban banks from creating counterfeit money loans for residential mortgages and small business loans.
Reddit is incredibly gullible, if not dense, when it comes to housing.
Unless you’re going to nationalise Travis Perkins, seize privately owned land and press gang builders into indentured servitude it is not going to radically change housing costs. Most private builders struggle to rustle up a 5% net margin.
In fact even if you did do those things it still wouldn’t change much because the cost of housing is determined by the supply of mortgages not the supply of houses.
If prefabcrication was used it’d be a good pathway to getting a lot of people in to semi skilled work, ideal for on the job training.
Sometimes repetitive simple work is just whats needed for people dealing with anxiety and depression.
And in 2050 a right leaning government sells them off to the tenants on the cheap rinse and repeat
Are they going to be exempt from planning permission or are they just going to face the same problems as private builders?
We have had plenty of state owned housing developers set up by councils – but unless they’ve funded to pay for social houses that the market can’t provide they add nothing.
The most important part of this is that the state provider can be more consistent.
The private sector might be able to to build 100,000 in a good year, but when the cost of borrowing shoots up (like now for example) they close sites, lay people off, stop buying from suppliers.
That makes it very hard to increase the country’s capacity to build. Who wants to train as a builder when you might only have work every other year at the whim of borrowing costs.
A state builder can be more consistent, keep skilled workers in the industry during downturns, train people, and support suppliers.
If it works then it should increase the UK’s overall capacity to build homes.
Just imagine how shit a public sector housing developer will be. Staffed by people too shit to get a job in a decent developer, placing contracts with their mates and being late, over budget and crap quality like all of the public sector.
About time, it’s the only way they’re going to get enough starter homes built as developers want to make profit and they have the least amount.