Understanding The Root Causes Of The UK´s Housing Crisis With Lewis Herbert

For this episode, Paul and Lewis Herbert sit down to discuss the root causes of the UK current housing crisis and how the problem can be solved. For decades, Lewis has worked to tackle homelessness and the housing crisis.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• After the war, successive governments focused on housing. Millions of council
  houses and good quality private homes were built.
• The UK has not been building enough homes for about 50 years.
  The private sector has not been given the necessary levers and incentives to be able to build more.
• Planning at the county level for large-scale development would be a more effective approach.
• Many housing associations want ideal tenants, so the homeless do not qualify.
• In countries where house prices remain reasonable, rent is actually affordable.
• Even in Cambridge, where thousands of homes have been built, there is still not
  enough housing. In the 90s, the average cost of a home was 3 times a family´s income.
• In 2021, it was 9 times their household income.
• The economy is damaged because people can no longer afford to move for work.
• There are a lot of potential buyers, but very few that can afford to buy.
• Intensive development does not have to mean sub-standard or small homes.
• New techniques enable faster building.

BEST MOMENTS
“The people that suffer the most are on the bottom rung of the ladder… some are forced into temporary accommodation.”“We need many more small house builders to solve the housing crisis.”
“In 1976, the tap was turned off for social housing.”
“Land banking isn´t really a thing.”
“We have failed this generation.”

ABOUT THE GUEST
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lewis-herbert-84378110
Dave Hughes episode - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyKp-0P730s

ABOUT THE HOST 
Paul Higgs is a Chartered Planning and Development Surveyor with 40+ years' experience in land, planning and development and a 100% success track record in winning planning consents.
Paul undertook his first refurb project when he was just 17 and then worked his way up from labouring on building sites to becoming Head of Land for renowned plc housebuilder, Barratt Developments. He managed to escape the corporate world in 2002 to set up what is now a multimillion-pound award-winning property development company, Millbank Group.
In 2013 Paul founded the Millbank Land Academy, the UK’s first training company dedicated to property development; to teach established and aspiring developers the insider secrets the big housebuilders don’t want you to know! 
Paul is also a founding investor and former board director of the industry-leading PropTech Co, LandTech, and has lectured on Advanced Development Valuations on the MSc Property Development at London South Bank University.
 
CONTACT METHOD
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-higgs
Millbank Land Academy: https://www.millbanklandacademy.co.uk
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/paulhiggsofficial
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@InsidePropertyDevelopment