The housing crisis is being blamed by senior Conservative MP Michael Gove for the big losses suffered by the Tories at the local elections last week, with the Liberal Democrats, Labour and the Greens making gains as the results were declared on Friday.

Prime minister Boris Johnson accepted it was a “tough night” for the Conservatives after Labour took control of Westminster City Council for the first time since its creation in 1964 and Wandsworth Council for the first time in 44 years.

Labour also won a majority on the new Cumberland Council, with the Tory leader of Carlisle Council calling on the prime minister to resign over the result – locally and nationally.

But Gove, the levelling up and housing minister, believes that “removing the prime minister now would be bonkerooney”, and instead believes that fixing the housing crisis holds the key to turning around his party’s fortunes.

According to Gove, falling levels of home ownership were a major factor in the Conservatives’ heavy local election losses, with significantly more needing to be done to get people onto the housing ladder.

“There is a particular challenge for us in London and I think that challenge in London relates to … homeownership,” Gove told The Sunday Telegraph.

“That’s one lesson that I would draw at this stage,” he added. “The other one is that the Labour Party doesn’t seem to have made anything like the progress outside of London, that you would expect an opposition to do if it was on course for victory.”

Home ownership has fallen from 51% in 1989 to 28% in 2019 among 25 to 34-year-olds.

“I think that for young people in London, there is a responsibility on the incumbent government to address some of the factors that have made it more difficult for them to own their own home,” Gove said.

He added: “There are people who are perfectly capable of servicing a mortgage who are paying more in rent than they would for their mortgage. That is wrong.”

The government’s plans to increase the supply of homes form part of its Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill will be unveiled in the Queen’s speech next week.

SOURCE: Property Industry Eye| MAY 9, 2022 | MARC DA SILVA