Recent polling data from Ipsos Mori makes depressing reading for anyone who thinks housing should be further up the agenda of this government, or the next.
Just 13% think (pdf) housing is one of the most important issues facing the UK; even fewer (9%) say it's very important in deciding which party they will vote for at the next general election. Intriguingly though, 26% think the Tories have the best housing policies, compared with just 23% for labour.
Concerned that so many voters appear better acquainted with Tory housing policy than I am, I turned to the smart new Conservative party website, where I learned of Tory plans to scrap stamp duty for first time buyers on properties up to £250,000, and to get rid of home information packs. Hardly a ground-breaking policy agenda. But I was also reminded that shadow housing minister, Grant Shapps, is very keen on social justice. Indeed, he believes the level of homelessness in society "to be a truer measure of how civilised we are than almost any other factor".
To give them their due, earlier this year David Cameron launched the Conservative Homelessness Foundation. But so far, according to Shelter's Adam Sampson, "The trouble is the Conservatives are very careful not to commit themselves to the sort of policies that would actually solve the problem." While seven policy papers have been published under Cameron's leadership, they haven't yet got round to housing and homelessness. Indeed, apart from Shapps' own report (pdf) into the numbers of people being discharged from hospital with no home to go to (admittedly a good barometer of the extent of the housing crisis) the Tories seems pretty much policy free. The fact that they are perceived as ahead of Labour on the issue can only reflect general disillusion with the government.
It's worth recalling a few statistics: In England alone, more than a million children live in sub-standard housing; 8.1m homes fail to meet the government's Decent Homes Standard; 1.7m households are on local authority waiting lists; more than 500,000 households are overcrowded; under Labour, the number of homeless households has doubled to 1m; at the end of last year, nearly 80,000 households were living in temporary accommodation, three quarters of which have dependent children. And even before the economic crisis hit, a 50% annual rise in mortgage repossessions (to 45,000) was forecast for 2008.
This is bad by the standards of any civilised society, and it's been getting steadily worse throughout a period of unprecedented growth and stability. Now the economic chickens have come home to roost, more families will be affected, and more severely. If these figures represent the best we can do in good times, then what hope for the immediate future?
Unsurprisingly, the same polling data revealed that 41% think the economy is the second most important issue facing the country (after crime and law and order). Presumably, many respondents fear the impact of the economic crisis on their own situation, especially if they have mortgages to pay. It's understandable that people worry more about themselves when the going gets tough, but the experience doesn't seem to help them identify with the plight of those for whom the going is always tough.
If Shapps' definition of a civilised society is correct then homelessness is an acute moral issue, even if it fails to register with the moral sensitivities of most voters. As with residual unemployment, people seem to have been persuaded of the 'structural' nature of homelessness. It's become part of the price we have to pay for the wider benefits of a modern, growth-driven society. If the City of London Corporation can get away with its policy of "wetting down" to drive rough sleepers off the streets without a public outcry, then little wonder that politicians are not inclined to take homelessness more seriously.
Nobody quite knew how the government was going to pay for the 3m new homes promised by Gordon Brown soon after he became prime minister. Obviously this target will not now be reached, whoever wins the next election. In his speech to the Conservative party conference this week, Shapps promised to remove some of the regulatory obstacles to building more homes, but if the market was unable to deliver enough of the right kind of homes before the financial crisis hit, there is no chance of it so doing now.
Once the current crisis in under control, several things need to happen: more people need to become aware of the scale of the problem; more people need to develop a greater empathy with the plight of homeless people; more people need to become aware of the fundamental flaws in current economic thinking that makes widespread homelessness inevitable even in rich countries, and even during boom times. But perhaps most importantly, a maverick politician – a Cruddas, a Cable, or even perhaps a Shapps – needs to focus our attention on this appalling moral failure by banging on relentlessly about the importance of housing to a civilised society.