Our Introductory Note on housing policy informed a seminar we held at Conservative Party Conference with Secretary of State for Communities and Housing, Sajid Javid. Following this and through an open and consultative process we will publish a position paper in the autumn of 2017 and then a policy paper in 2018.

In imagining the country we want the UK to be, few things are more important than the home we will live in. Few things matter more to individuals and families—and few issues represent such an acute threat to our country’s well-being.

The current state of housing in the UK is undermining Britain’s economic and social order. It is the most acute domestic challenge facing our country.

At the Legatum Institute we are focused on tackling the major challenges of our generation—and seizing the major opportunities—to ensure the legacy we pass on to the next generation is one of increasing prosperity and human flourishing.

The UK needs a new national mission to build the houses we need—a campaign on the same scale as Nye Bevin’s Home for Heroes housebuilding effort in the 1940s, or Harold Macmillan’s which followed in the 1950s. For all of this, public consent and political leadership are required.