South East needs 1.1m homes, says report

Extra pressure will be brought to bear on the Government's housing policy following a new report that claimed the South East needs between 1.3 to 1.4 million new homes in the period 1996-2016.

The report, Who needs housing?, was compiled by researchers at Cambridge University for the National Housing Federation and launched yesterday (9 November).

Bernadette Stokoe, head of the southern region of the NHF, said: "These figures show that the 1.1 million new homes recommended by the Government panel of inquiry on the South East's regional planning guidance, far from being a crazy over-estimate, is probably an under-estimate."

The report's authors argue that between 360,000 and 408,000 of the new homes should be affordable housing.

The authors recommend that the only way to substantially reduce the need for new homes in the south east would be to significantly change employment opportunities in other regions.