Could redistributing the Houses of Parliament refurb budget solve the housing crisis in Plymouth?

A new study from development finance specialists, Pure Commercial Finance, has revealed that using the £4bn that is to be spent on refurbishing the Houses of Parliament on the housing deficit, could improve the housing crisis in Plymouth by 46%.

The total funding of £4bn could, if matched, build 40,000 new properties, based on the average cost of building a 3-bedroom house being £99,842.75 (based on internal data). This should in total, house 121,000 people, based on three people per house which is the UK average per household.

Government figures have revealed that since 2010, 430,000 affordable homes have been built. However, Shelter, the UK housing charity, has stated that there are around 320,000 homeless people in the UK – with 170,000 just in London alone.

Polly Neate, CEO of Shelter, has said: “It is unforgiveable that 320,000 people in the UK have been swept up by the housing crisis and now have no place to call home. These new figures show that homelessness is having a devastating impact on the lives of people right across the country.”

This table shows the towns and cities in Devon that were analysed, followed by what percentage of the town or city could be housed with 40,000 new properties that could be built from the £4bn:

Ben Lloyd, the Managing Director of Pure Commercial Finance, has said: “We deal with professional developers every day and we are well-aware of the demand for affordable housing across the UK and the influence that Brexit is having on borrowing.

“Although we would never suggest cancelling the refurbishment of such a prized national monument, we were shocked to see how matching the refurbishment budget could help towards solving the deficit.”