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slippers in reply to @Grumpy_Git

I posted the link because, in relation to the merger between Barratt and Redrow, it shows the centralisation of the UK building system on only a handful of companies.

And also, like, Lloyds Banking Group and Barratt have formed a new venture with the government housing agency Homes England, so they're not exactly separate concerns now.

The three largest housebuilders (by number of houses built) regularly produce about 25% of all new homes, while the top ten typically produce about 40-50%. This means the government relies on a small number of private businesses to deliver most new housing. But their collective supply consistently falls short of targets.

Profit over volume
In the years following the 2008 global financial crisis, the “big three” housebuilders that dominate the new-build market in Britain have been able to increase their profits without significantly increasing the number of homes they build. This has happened despite political pressure to increase UK housing supply.

[...]

The then-group operations director of Taylor Wimpey even pointed this out in May 2018, noting that “everybody in the industry has been telling you [investors] for several years how much easier the land environment is, how much, much better the returns are, how much less competition there is”.

We argue this state support via planning liberalisation has given volume housebuilders what’s called monopsonistic market power in local land markets.

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As the then-group chief executive of Taylor Wimpey disclosed in July 2013: “like any oligopoly, there’s a balancing act. If you … try and push your market share … you move the whole market and that’s going to damage us all”.

That last comment shows how brazen these people are, they just couldn't give a shit

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Grumpy_Git in reply to @slippers

Now if the government was to engage in compulsory land purchases and use the new collaboration to build state rental accomodation it would be interesting. If all they are doing is funding barrat to build risk and capital investment free I'll be really pissed.

Maybe we ban all large housing companies and rely on small builders to knock up prefab houses to order. Eg go online, pick a plot and a building type. Choose some colours and 6 months later you have a house.

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slippers in reply to @Grumpy_Git

I'm not a big fan of compulsory land purchases tbh, unless it's for something like a new train line which has seriously important national value. I suspect you're right there though, however shit it might be, it's probably a vehicle designed to be seen to be doing stuff without risk or capital investment.

The competition and market authority just need to break these fuckers up. I wouldn't mind a european-style self-build/self-manage system like you describe, but we're so far away from it at the moment it's unreal.

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