UK Election May Turn on Housing

Who should be trusted to handle the housing crisis impacting the UK: the Labour party or the Conservatives? For Labour politicians, the hope is that voters will turn to them to solve a host of domestic issues, including wage growth and the ever increasing cost of housing. The Economist reports that Labour politicians are seeking support from voters based on their claim that Labour controlled councils have built more housing than Conservative councils since 2010. Research conducted by The Economistfound that the housing story is a bit more complicated.

Our research suggests that in absolute terms, the performance of Labour councils is indeed better. On average they increased the total stock of housing in their local authority by 3,000 in 2010-16. The Tories did so by 2,000 over the same period.

And yet. Labour-controlled councils tend to be bigger, so you would expect the absolute number to be higher anyway. Surely what really matters is the proportional increase in housing stock. And here, Labour does less well. We calculate that since 2010 the housing stock in Labour councils rose by 3.5%, slightly lower than the 4% in Tory-controlled ones.