A recent report by Curia and Opinium has found that the public’s trust in Labour’s house building programme is as low as 17 per cent.
Despite widespread support for house building, with 54 per cent of all UK adults supporting more construction, Rt Hon Andrew Stephenson argues that “it is not enough to be right on policy. You have to convince people you can follow through”.
The polling coincides with the upcoming debates in the House of Commons on the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, planned for June 9 and June 10.
The report outlines a number of strategies the government could undertake to increase trust in their housing policy, including ensuring that new builds are high quality and in keeping with local character and showing tangible development through transforming vacant brownfield sites.
The report, which polled a nationally representative sample of 2,050 UK adults, also found significant divergences in trust and support between NIMBYs and YIMBYs.
It defined NIMBYs as UK adults who support limiting new building projects in order to preserve the character of local areas, and YIMBYs as those who support increased construction to address housing shortages and rising property prices.
Using these definitions 45 per cent of adults were classed as NIMBYs and 37 per cent as YIMBYs.
While 17 per cent of all UK adults believed that Labour would hit its target of 1.5 million new homes, this rose to 25 per cent of YIMBYs and fell to 13 per cent of NIMBYs.
Support for house building also differed, with 79 per cent of YIMBYs supporting new house building, almost double NIMBY support of 39 per cent and the UK average of 54 per cent.
They also cited different ways in which the government could increase support for house building, with NIMBYs supporting the use of brownfield land in order to protect green spaces as the strategy they would support the most (57 per cent), and thinking that prioritising affordable housing for low income households is less important (36 per cent) than the average UK adult (42 per cent) or YIMBYs (56 per cent)
In contrast, YIMBYs prioritise high-quality, attractive homes that fit local character (56 per cent) and affordable housing (56 per cent) while supporting brownfield development (47 per cent) and infrastructure (44 per cent) slightly less than NIMBYs (57 per cent and 53 per cent) and the UK average (47 per cent and 44 per cent).
Support for infrastructure development significantly outperformed support for housing (48 per cent compared to 37 per cent), while 44 per cent of adults said that building infrastructure before adding housing would increase public trust and support in Labour’s construction plans.
This suggests a shift from housing to public infrastructure projects could also be more beneficial, building trust in the government’s wider construction plans, with Stephenson saying the government should “lay the groundwork before you lay the bricks”.
The contrast between infrastructure and housing support is particularly apparent in local areas, where house building was only supported by 7 per cent of people if it took place in their local area, compared to 42 per cent support for local infrastructure investment
Support is particularly strong for projects like wastewater plants (53 per cent), rail infrastructure (49 per cent), wind farms (49 per cent), and digital infrastructure (46 per cent).
Despite high support for digital infrastructure, AI projects appear to suffer from a lack of clear understanding, with 32 per cent of people saying they don’t understand what the government’s new AI growth zones are meant to be, and only 21 per cent believing they will benefit their local areas.
Stephenson explains that the public “don’t want sweeping rhetoric about growth zones or deregulation – they want to see real infrastructure, better quality homes, and trust restored at a local level.”
Another roadblock for the government’s plans is its approach to environmental regulation, with 30 per cent of UK adults believing protections do not go far enough and allow “too many things to be built which have a damaging environmental impact”, compared to 14 per cent who believe they are too restrictive, and 28 per cent who believe it is “about right”.
Support for environmental protections also increase for certain species like ancient trees (84 per cent), wild birds (82 per cent) and butterflies and otters (78 per cent).
As a response to the findings, Curia’s Housing and Infrastructure Research Group, which commissioned the polling and co-designed the research with Opinium, is calling for policy to focus on place-based delivery, brownfield-first development, and early infrastructure investment to rebuild confidence in planning and development.
“Labour has successfully positioned itself as the party of house building”, said James Crouch, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at Opinium, “but that won’t shield the government from voter backlash if it fails to meet its own housing targets.”
Find the full Curia and Opinium report here.
Featured image via Simon Dawson / No 10.
Author: Jamie Calder.
