Your reminder, the social housing waiting list is those who want cheap housing

We’ve pointed this out before and no doubt we’ll have to point it out again. This is a very basic point about supply, demand and prices. The queue of people asking for below market price housing tells us absolutely nothing at all about the number of people who need below market priced housing. It is, by definition, the number of people who would like below market price housing:

Between April 2013 and April 2023, the number of social housing homes owned by local authorities and housing associations in England fell by 260,464 units, according to the charity Shelter, which calculated the figures.

Polly Neate, its chief executive, said: “We are seeing more social housing being sold off or demolished than built, despite the staggering 1.3m households stuck on social housing waiting lists in desperate need of a genuinely affordable home.

If Aldi (or Lidl, Tesco, whatever and to taste) cut the price of bananas to a penny each there would be a queue at Aldi (or Lidl, Tesco, whatever and to taste) for one penny bananas. Everybody likes having things at below market price.

And, as that very basic supply and demand model tells us, as prices fall then demand rises. So, the demand for below market price housing is high and that then leads to a queue.

Sure, it’s possible that more cheap housing should exist. We certainly think so, that’s why we insist that the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 should be blown up - proper blown up, kablooie. In order to make housing cheaper for everyone.

But it’s still not true that a queue of 1.3 million households for below market priced housing is proof that there are 1.3 million households that need below market priced housing. It’s proof that there are 1.3 million households who would like to pay below market price for their housing. This is not the same thing.

There are queues for stuff going cheap are there? Gerraway……