David Smith, Economics Editor at The Sunday Times, said while the course of the pandemic remains uncertain through autumn and winter, a big fall in house prices looks unlikely, “making this the oddest economic and housing cycle in history.”
He also believes that the “working from home” agenda will soften as more employers recall staff to workplaces and people that moved during the pandemic “may discover that they have made the wrong choices.”
With house prices unlikely to fall back – if at all – Professor Williams suggested that the only way government could hit and maintain its 300,000 new homes a year target would require non-profits, such as housing associations and local authorities, to develop more.
“In 2019 the French built 50% more housing than the UK, and in Germany they built 30% more housing than the UK,” he said. “Here in the UK we are awful at building enough good housing for our population, but it can be done.”
He argued for raising the local authority borrowing cap, development of new garden towns, more support for self-build and a government investment in housing of 1% of GDP.
Kitty Ussher was the most upbeat of the panel. “Confidence has returned, the public have some savings and government spending is strong,” she said.
In the longer term she believes digital adoption – accelerated because of Covid – may lead to better productivity, and more flexible working could result in greater labour market participation, pushing down on unemployment.
With greater tax-and-spend coming down the pipe, including a 7% rise in corporation tax from April 2023 already announced, it’s unlikely the pandemic will result in similar austerity measures seen after the 2008 financial crash.