Britain set out plans on Tuesday to make renting more affordable, protect tenants and punish developers for not building quickly enough, in a shift away from decades of policy almost solely promoting home ownership. In a white paper entitled "Fixing our broken housing market", the government laid out proposals to build more homes for rent, extend the length of tenancies and change planning laws to encourage developers to boost supply for renters.
Amid signs that housebuilding will not meet demand for many years to come, it also said local councils may be given power to rescind planning permission or even take control of land from developers who fail to build quickly enough once it is granted.
Since then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher began selling off council homes in the 1980s, very little social housing has been built, with successive governments instead seeking to help those trying to get a foot on the property ladder. As a consequence, demand has outstripped supply in many areas of the country, pushing up the average price of a property to more than eight times average earnings and forcing many people to spend up to half their income on rent.
"We need to look after people who are renting as well (as buyers) and in the past I think many governments have focused too much just on ownership," communities minister Sajid Javid told Sky News.