Housing troubles

The piece at reference 1 about the troubles of one of our half dozen big house builders - I dare say between them accounting for a large proportion of the houses built in this country - reminded me that providing a lot more houses is not going to be an easy business. And that without thinking of the blocking activities of the planners and the nimbies, these last sometimes giving themselves a heritage branding.

I was also reminded of Bovis, a big and very visible building contractor when I was young; notable for their use of fee based rather than fixed price build contracts. Quite a novelty at the time, as I recall, and I dare say it features in some of today's build contracts in one form or another. I associate to the guaranteed prices for electricity offered to companies building power stations. For Bovis and his friends see references 2 thru 5.

In the olden days, people like my parents and BH's parents put their savings into Building Societies which used those funds to provide private housing. The taxpayer provided the capital needed for councils to build what we now call social housing. Things are rather different and rather more complicated now - but the bottom line must be are we going to cut a bigger slice of the national pie for housing, rather than something else? Or will we get by by making a bigger pie, on credit from Arabs, the Chinese and others? Build now, feel the pain tomorrow?

A short conversation with Gemini reminds me that even putting a percentage to the size of the house building pie is not straightforward - but probably quite small, given the chart he offers included above.

He also points me to the helpful tutorial at reference 6, which provides a more elaborate version, in tabular rather than pie form. With the rather dodgy looking line at the top appearing to include imputed rent for privately owned houses, not exactly an 'economic activity by industry' in the ordinary sense of the phrase.

From where I associated to the troubles that the Chinese have got themselves into with their construction binge. One aspect of which is to be found at reference 7.

PS 1: as an afterthought, I ask Gemini about the 'large proportion' I started with. It turns out not to be as large as I had thought. He also says that small builders are very much in decline: not the business that it used to be at all. And he reminds me that while we might have more or less abolished council houses - and housing expertise in local government - housing associations have stepped up to the role.

PS 2: back with reference 1, where I started today (Saturday), I also associate to the risk business. Where does the risk sit and what do we do about it? Do we just take the pain, or do we insure? I remember that in the olden days, our government did not bother with insurance for its vehicles, it was a big enough operator to carry the risk itself and not bother with insurance companies and their percentages. I dare say things have moved on there too.

PS 3: after breakfast. All is well after all; the FT has the answers. See reference 8.

PS 4: not let go yet. Is one symptom of trouble the fact that we spend a lot more on living in houses than we spend on building them? Which sounds neat enough, but, as ever, disappears into a cloud of complexity when I look a bit closer. To be thought about. Maybe the sort of thing an economist could give me a neat story about. 

The snap above is lifted from ONS at reference 9: average weekly household expenditure in the UK, financial year ending (FYE) 2025 on a total household spend of £676.60 per week 

References

Reference 1: Credit insurer to cut cover for UK housebuilder Vistry’s suppliers: Allianz Trade’s planned move could exacerbate squeeze on cash flow of struggling company - Julie Steinberg, Lee Harris, Jennifer Williams, Financial Times - 2026. 

Reference 2: https://www.vistry.co.uk/.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vistry_Group.

Reference 4: https://www.bovis.com/.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovis_(company).

Reference 6: https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-8353/CBP-8353.pdf.

Reference 7: ‘Cursed island’: the $100bn luxury development hosting tech nomads and scammers: Police raids strike new blow to reputation of Malaysia’s troubled Chinese-backed Forest City project - Owen Walker, Financial Times - 2026.

Reference 8: How to fix Britain’s housing crisis: We need to find ways to lift the financial and resource constraints on new homebuilding - Andy Haldane, Financial Times - 2026.

Reference 9: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/expenditure/bulletins/familyspendingintheuk/april2024tomarch2025.