After new Housing Secretary doubles down on Labour vow, industry professional says problem is bigger than simply a housing shortage
Steve Reed’s first public statement after taking on the role of Housing Secretary was to drum home his “Build, baby, build” slogan – an unsubtle nod to Labour’s commitment to build 1.5 million new homes.
The rallying call has been met with a tired sense of déjà vu by brokers, who feel the issue has not been addressed by a succession of ministers and Governments. “We've been here for ages, for a long time now,” said Guarav Shukla, director at Home Me Mortgage. “We need to build more, build more. [But] it's a bigger problem than just building houses for the people that are here.”
Reed’s slogan is essentially a promise to break the cycle of housing shortages and spiraling prices but for many, the rhetoric is all too familiar.
“Now they want to build, but you're not going to build fast enough. The quality is not great with these new builds as well,” she said. “The value of them is so high because you're factoring an extra 15%, 20% in the price. Then when people want to sell, it's like we're selling for the same price. They can't really move. So, then they're stuck. It has a massive knock-on effect; it's just monopolizing it.”
The sentiment is echoed across the sector: policy announcements come and go, but the underlying issues persist. “We'll hear it next year, the year after, the year after, and when the government's changed. We'll build more, we'll build more, and we'll still be in the same position,” Shukla added.
Reed steps into the role with a reputation for advocacy on social justice and a background in local government. He previously served as Shadow Secretary for Justice and as leader of Lambeth Council, and his appointment signals Labour’s intent to prioritise housing, but the scale of the challenge is daunting. Reed inherits a sector marked by chronic undersupply, affordability crises, and widespread scepticism about the feasibility of ambitious targets .
For first-time buyers, the outlook remains bleak. Shukla notes a marked shift in his own business: “A very small percentage of people are buying first homes, especially where we're based in, Maidenhead, Windsor. House prices are quite high, yeah, and it's like, right, where are these people gonna afford to buy things? Salaries haven't gone up as much as people wanted to. They rarely ever do. And house prices keep going up, and as the rates come down, property price will still continue to rise.”
The government’s efforts to stimulate lending and ease affordability constraints have done little to bridge the gap. “Lenders have tried to do as much as they can, increasing the amount people can buy to, like, five and a half times and reducing stress tests and all that stuff. But it's not going to change anything massively. Is it? Cost of everything else is going up, so people have less disposal, less savings, house prices creeping up slowly, so that gap's just going to get bigger and bigger.”
For many brokers, the latest slogan is just that - a slogan. “It's just that they love slogans, right? And that's how they try and win people over. Then when it comes to it, it’s a case of, ‘we're not going to do it, it's not possible, it's not feasible, we don't have the money for it, we're broke.’ It's the same stuff. I'm pretty sure we'll have a conversation in five years' time. It'll be the exact same.”
‘Concrete measures’ needed
Marie Grundy, managing director at West One, welcomes the renewed political momentum but urges realism about the scale of the challenge. “While we welcome the new Housing Secretary’s renewed commitment to the Labour Government’s housebuilding targets, this does not set out how they will resolve the structural challenges to meeting such an ambitious target.
“The latest Savills projections suggest Labour is on course to deliver around 840,000 new homes over five years, falling 42% short of its 1.5 million homes commitment in the current parliamentary term.
“As a specialist lender, we remain committed to supporting viable housing projects and look forward to the introduction of concrete measures that address capacity constraints, alongside the renewed political momentum.”
As the sector awaits concrete action, the mood remains one of cautious realism. For now, the promise of “build, baby, build” is met with a familiar refrain: we’ve heard it all before.
