How Much Extra Affordable Housing is Needed in England?

Booming housing markets in the UK have once again brought into sharper focus the issues of housing affordability, housing need and ‘affordable housing’ solutions. This paper reviews issues in the measurement of problems of affordability, particularly access to homeownership, and reports on modelled estimates for England at regional and local levels. These models provide a method for comparing pressures in different areas, but also for measuring market change over time and its relationship with the economy. They are also useful for identifying and assessing the scope for ‘intermediate’ forms of provision between conventional homeownership and social renting. Measures of recent and prospective needs for additional affordable housing provision, derived from this analysis of affordability, are presented and assessed. These findings are linked to a broader contemporary policy debate about housing and planning policy in England.