Report

Quick wins

This report from UK think tank the Fabian Society sets out ‘quick wins’ to ramp up the number of good quality homes built in the communities that need them.

Since July 2024, the government has undertaken substantial, necessary reforms to tackle the housing crisis and get Britain building again. It has rightly set out a target to build 1.5m new homes in England over this parliament to expand the opportunity of homeownership and affordable housing to more people.

However, there is now a real risk that housebuilding in England falls short. England built just over a third of the homes it needed in 2025, with the vast majority of councils failing to meet their housing targets. Achieving the 1.5m homes target is likely to require an unprecedented number of starts in the final half of the parliament.

This paper sets out a stimulus package of ‘quick wins’ to ramp up the number of good quality homes built in the communities that need them. Implemented together, these reforms could deliver an extra 87,000 dwellings a year – equivalent to raising predicted housebuilding in 2029-30 by 36 per cent. The proposals would help England build over 300,000 homes in a single year for the first time since 1969.