01 / THE BIG PICTURE
The housing crisis
England needs more homes in the places people need them, at prices and rents they can afford. The gap between ambition and delivery is the central question of this site.
THE QUESTION
Why does this matter?
Housing pressure shows up as expensive homes, high rents, overcrowding, long commutes and a shortage of secure, affordable options. National totals hide large differences between places and types of home. A planning permission is an important step, but it is not a completed dwelling.
The latest annual net additions figure is about 91,400 below a simple 300,000-a-year pace for 1.5 million over five years. That is an illustration, not a forecast: the parliamentary period and official measurement dates do not align exactly.
EXPLORE THE EVIDENCE
Six ways into the story
Why it happens
Affordability, planning capacity, infrastructure, viability and the build-out gap.
Explore →02The government plan
What is funded, what has changed in planning, and what remains uncertain.
Explore →03Council evidence
Real land supply examples, old plans and properly defined performance measures.
Explore →04Appeals & objections
Which councils are designated, and what two heavily opposed cases can tell us.
Explore →05What would help
A practical package to turn plans and permissions into homes.
Explore →06Read the sources
Official statistics, council documents, press reporting and caveats.
Explore →JOIN THE CAUSE
Support homes near you
Are you struggling to get on the housing ladder and would like to support planning applications for housing near you? Sign up to our cause and we will email you when relevant planning applications appear that you can support.
Tell us your postcode district so we can identify your area. We are collecting interest now; automatic application alerts are not active yet. You can unsubscribe at any time.
We separate need, planned land, permissions and completed homes. They measure different stages of the same process.