THE BARKER REVIEW

The Government commissioned a report from Kate Barker, with the explicit purpose of achieving improvements in housing affordability, creating a more stable housing market, locating housing supply to promote economic growth and providing an adequate supply of public (or social) housing for those who need it (Barker, 2014). Essentially, the 2014 Barker Review found that there are several major problems with regards to the supply of housing in the UK, in that, in many parts of the country, house prices have increased rapidly, far out of line with any increases in salaries, mainly because the supply of housing has not kept up with the demand for this housing, and because there has been an increase in the number of people needing housing, due to an increase in the population and an increase in the amount of one-person occupancy of existing housing stock (see Department for Communities and Local Government, 2006 and Barker, 2014).

In practical terms, Barker (2014) predicted a need for 209,000 more households in the UK each year, from the date of the report until 2026, with recommendations also being made as to how the house-building sector and the planning system should respond to this need (see Department for Communities and Local Government, 2016). Not only did Barker (2014) recommend an increase in the number of private dwellings, of the magnitude already suggested, but also an increase in the amount of social rented housing in order to deal with the increase in the need for such housing and the loss of stock of such housing through the Right to Buy scheme (see Department for Communities and Local Government, 2006 and Reeves, 2015).

The Government responded to the Barker review (see Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2014) by outlining three main goals of their house building strategy: providing a step on the housing ladder for future generations, providing quality and choice for those who rent and ensuring that m