The housing crisis needs social not technical solutions

Scarcely a day passes without the publication of a report or article arguing that countries around the world are in the grip of a housing crisis.

For many commentators and governments the nature of the housing crisis, as well as its causes and solutions, are all relatively simple: house prices and rents have rocketed in recent decades as planning constraints have prevented enough homes from being built, and so we need to deregulate planning or zoning systems so that supply can keep pace with rising demand. This approach positions the housing crisis as a technical economic problem with a straightforward solution which market forces are itching to deliver if only government would get out of the way.

While ensuring sufficient homes get built is clearly a very important policy goal, there are real risks and problems associated with the current trend for housing debates and policy programmes to focus so heavily on supply volumes: These debates tend to overlook the fundamentally social dimensions of the problem.

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