For details about policies affecting the housing sector, see:

Tackling the under-supply of housing in England (March 2018)

  • This briefing paper considers key trends in housing supply in the UK and goes on to focus on some of the of the key barriers and potential solutions to increasing supply in England.

Stimulating housing supply – Government initiatives (England) (March 2018)

  • This paper summarises key Government initiatives aimed at increasing housing supply in England since 2015.

Extending home ownership: Government initiatives (December 2017)

  • This briefing paper describes the specific Government initiatives which have been developed in order to assist first time buyers into home ownership

What is affordable housing?

  • This paper considers how affordable housing is defined in England and looks at key trends in the affordability of different tenure types.

Starter Homes for First-Time Buyers (England) (September 2017)

  • This briefing paper explains the Government’s starter homes initiative.

Introducing a voluntary Right to Buy for housing association tenants in England (March 2018)

  • This paper provides information on progress the Government’s commitment to extend a voluntary right to buy to assured tenants of housing associations.

Implementation of the Housing and Planning Act 2016 (March 2018)

  • The Housing and Planning Act 2016 provides the legislative underpinning for a number of measures, including the starter homes initiative; efforts to tackle ‘rogue’ landlords; social housing reform (including the end of lifetime secure tenancies) and planning reforms designed to speed up the approval process. This paper explains progress in implementing the Act’s provisions.

The Library also has papers explaining the support available to help owner-occupiers and renters pay for their accommodation:

Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) scheme (March 2018)

Housing costs in Universal Credit (January 2018)

For statistical information see:

Housing Market: Key Economic Indicators (March 2018)

  • A look at house prices, building rates, and mortgage approvals

House prices (UK): Social Indicators page (March 2018)

  • A guide to house affordability
  • For more information on defining ‘affordability’ see the Library paper What is affordable housing?

Local Authority Homelessness Statistics (England) (January 2018)

Housebuilding (UK): Social Indicators page (November 2017)

Housing supply for local authorities (England) (November 2017)

  • A tool to compare housing supply statistics for local authorities.

Home ownership and renting: demographics (June 2017)

Further information

On 6 February 2018, there was a General Debate on Housing, Planning and the Green Belt. The Library produced a corresponding debate pack.

Health in Private-Rented Housing – this POSTnote looks at the quality of housing in the private rented sector and explains the effects that housing conditions can have on health. It also looks at interventions to improve housing quality in the private rented sector and at the challenges to implementing them.

The Commons Library, as well as the Lords Library and the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST), has produced other material related to housing: this can be found on the Research Briefings website.

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