The majority of people in this country, including one in three Conservative voters, think the government is failing on housing, with significantly more social housing urgently needed, new polling shows.
Michael Gove, the secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities, published the long-delayed bill reforming aspects of private renting last week, Ipsos found 52% of people, including 34% of those who voted Tory in 2019, currently think the government is failing on the issue and only 19% believe it is doing a good job.
It also found voters believe building social housing is more important than increasing the supply of homes to buy, despite a focus by the government and the Labour opposition on boosting home ownership.
Some 63% of the more than 2,000 British adults polled last weekend were are not confident Britain will have enough affordable homes in the coming years.
Furthermore, 81% say the amount of affordable properties to rent is the most important housing-related issue
The majority agree with all elements of the new Renters’ Reform Bill, with 76% support for landlords having to explain to tenants details of any rent increases.
Ben Marshall, research director at Ipsos, said: “Housing is a currently a hot topic and there is currently a serious imbalance, with the public twice as likely to consider saying landlords taking advantage of tenants to be a very serious problem, compared to the tenants taking advantage of landlords. It is this imbalance, and the continued rent increases, that provide the backdrop to strong endorsement of the main features of the Renters Reform Bill, with a third of people strongly supporting the abolition of ‘no fault’ evictions.
“With just 19% of the public saying the government is doing a good job at improving housing and a third of 2019 Conservative voters finding fault with the government’s track record on housing over their time in leadership, this will no doubt be a focus in the build up to the Election.”
