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Dame Kate Barker to lead new study of England’s housing shortage
Economist Dame Kate Barker is to chair a new commission into England’s housing shortage, 20 years after she authored an influential report that called for more new homes.
Ms Barker sat on the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee between 2001 and 2010 and led landmark inquiries into housing and planning for the New Labour government in that period.
Her new commission will aim to make recommendations soon after the next general election on how to respond to England’s housing shortage.
It will address how to free up more land for development; the role of specialist housing for students and older people; sustainability; and ensuring affordability.
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The commission will meet publicly and privately “over the coming months” and will invite property experts to provide evidence on planning policy, land and unlocking investment, ahead of submitting proposals to the next government.
Other members of the commission include developers, investors, planners, academics and policy experts. This includes Lord Best, a cross-party peer who chaired the Affordable Housing Commission and former chair of Hanover Housing Association.
Housing associations are also represented in the commission by Doreen Wright, commercial director at A2Dominion.
Other commissioners include Rick de Blaby, chief executive of Get Living; Andrew Taylor, group planning director at Vistry; and Richard Blyth, head of policy practice and research at the Royal Town Planning Institute.
Ms Barker said: “20 years on from leading a review of housing supply it’s depressing to find many of the problems identified still remain. A pragmatic rethink is overdue.”
The commission will be run on behalf of thinktank Radix with the support of law firm Shoosmiths.
Ben Rich, chief executive at Radix, said: “There is a general consensus that the housing sector is in crisis and lots of solutions have been proposed, but many of them fall at the first hurdle because of a disconnect between the recommendations made and the commercial realities of the property sector.”
He said the commission would bring together public, voluntary and private sector voices to “identify practical policy solutions to one of the most enduring challenges of our age”.
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