Shadow housing and planning minister John Healey has announced an independent review into home ownership at the Labour Party conference.
The review will be led by Peter Redfern, chief executive of Taylor Wimpey, who will be advised by a panel of experts on housing and economics.
Healey said in his speech: “More than four in five of us aspire to own our own home, yet home ownership has fallen each and every year over the last five years.
“I have asked Taylor Wimpey chief executive Pete Redfern to lead an independent review to analyse the root causes of this decline and set out the ideas needed for a wide new debate.”
The panel includes Dame Kate Barker CBE, senior adviser to Credit Suisse and a former member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee; Ian Mulheirn, director of consulting at Oxford Economics; and Terrie Alafat, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing.
Redfern said: “Enabling more British people to own their own homes is fundamental to creating a flourishing society and is an issue that has a profound impact on the country.
The British Property Federation warned that to solve the national housing crisis, all tenures must be taken into consideration.
Chief executive Melanie Leech said: “The Labour Party has made a good start to showing it is pro-housing delivery, but if it is to meet all needs, that must be regardless of tenure.
“This was something that was recommended in the Labour-commissioned Lyons Review, which came out pre-election, and which we hope to see re-adopted as policy. If the country is to deliver anything close to the 250,000 homes a year, it needs all tenures to be firing on all cylinders. That means building for sale and social rent, but also supporting the growing institutional investment in build-to-rent.
The Redfern Review is due to report next summer.
