- Housing crisis fix is “not ‘Pick N Mix’”, Gavin Barwell tells Labour and the Conservatives.
- Half the rise in the cost of building a new home since 2020 is down to regulation, policy and tax. A 300-home Build to Rent scheme that would have made an £8 million profit in 2020 would now lose £6 million.
- The Commission brought together experts from across the housing sector, including planners, housebuilders, investors, housing association executives, land agents and economists.
Solving the Housing Crisis: A Plan to Make Homes More Affordable in Every Postcode is the Prosper UK Housing Commission’s plan to make housing more affordable across the country. Chaired by former Housing Minister Gavin Barwell, the Commission brought together planners, housebuilders, investors, housing association executives, land agents and economists.
Why the housing crisis needs a joined-up response
The Commission finds two connected barriers to housebuilding: weak demand from buyers and schemes becoming financially unviable as costs rise while prices remain flat. Addressing only one will not solve the problem.
Half the £76,000 increase in the cost of building a new home since 2020 is attributed to regulation, policy and tax. Planning permission for 209,781 homes was granted in England in the year to September 2025, the lowest since 2013. By the end of 2025, 176,130 children in England were living in temporary accommodation.
The Commission’s recommendations
- Viability: Freeze new regulatory burdens for at least three years; introduce a two-part test for obligations on new housing; limit Section 106 to what a development itself needs.
- Demand: A temporary, targeted shared equity scheme for first-time buyers of new, energy-efficient homes, capped at around a fifth of sales per site and funded by an industry access fee.
- Supply: A National Planning Service for major applications, a national Green Belt review that protects land preventing sprawl and settlements merging, and higher-density development as standard.
- Renting: Cut stamp duty on Build to Rent developments, standardise their Section 106 agreements, rule out rent controls in law and establish a Public Build to Rent programme using public land to deliver more social rent homes.
Making homes more affordable in every postcode
The report argues that improving affordability requires simultaneous action on demand, viability and supply, alongside measures to restore investor confidence in the rented sector and make better use of public land.
Gavin Barwell, chair of the Prosper UK Housing Commission, said:
“I’m pleased that even before the report is published the Government has adopted one of our recommendations and the Conservatives have said they would implement another, but our recommendations are not ‘Pick N Mix’. Boosting demand without increasing supply will help a few people at the expense of everyone else, and tackling viability without tackling demand will make little difference. That is the view of the diverse group of industry experts who produced this report.”
Read the full report
Download Solving the Housing Crisis: A Plan to Make Homes More Affordable in Every Postcode.