Keir Starmer’s Market Solutions for Housing Won’t Work
Fixing Britain’s housing crisis requires rebuilding the country’s publicly owned housing system — the opposite of the private developer–centered approach recently announced by Keir Starmer.
Keir Starmer visits a building development project on the banks of the River Wear on May 1, 2021 in Durham, United Kingdom. (Ian Forsyth / Getty Images)
Keir Starmer is a big fan of meaningless slogans. In his latest bid to prove that the Labour Party will actually do something when it inevitably comes to power at the next election, Starmer has announced plans to build a “patriotic economy.”
The focus of this latest slogan is homeownership. Starmer has said he will reform planning laws to facilitate the construction of 1.5 million homes. The idea is clearly meant to evoke images of the postwar Labour government that dramatically expanded the stock of social housing.
Clement Attlee’s postwar Labour government managed to build more than a million homes between 1945 and 1951, of which more than eight hundred thousand were council houses. And this unprecedented achievement was completed alongside the construction of the National Heath Service (NHS), expanding other public services, and nationalizing large parts of industry.
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