Calling affordable housing a “precious national resource”, Blythe says the UK should follow its own example with state provision of education and healthcare, and treat housing as a basic entitlement.
“If we are educating people and looking after their health, does it not make sense that we should close the loop with good housing that promotes health and enables people to take advantage of our investment in their education?” he writes.
In his hard-hitting essay, entitled “Nationalise the housing market: A radical proposal for an extraordinary crisis”, Blythe traces the origins of the crisis over two decades, during which time a rapidly swelling population has collided with a profound decrease in the supply of new homes, leading to soaring housing costs for buyers and renters.
His proposal comes as the number of households in England in emergency accommodation hit 77,240 this year, an increase of 60% since March 2011.
Official statistics show that the median price paid for residential property increased by 259% between 1997 and 2016, while median individual annual earnings increased by just 68% in the same time period.
