Housebuilding, land and structural power: the case of mortgage market support schemes in England

Foye, Chris and Shepherd, Edward ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8711-5542 2024. Housebuilding, land and structural power: the case of mortgage market support schemes in England. Business and Politics 10.1017/bap.2024.19

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Abstract

Housing is a critical part of every state’s infrastructure. However, in most advanced economies the state no longer builds very much of it, leaving it instead to private housebuilders. Because of their control over the supply of land, and the barriers to entry into the housebuilding industry, private housebuilders have potentially major structural power over the state. At the same time, private housebuilders are also tied to their land, and face other barriers to exit, thus limiting their ability to relocate capital elsewhere. Drawing on a range of secondary data sources, including earnings calls transcripts, annual reports and government policy documents, this paper demonstrates how the three largest volume housebuilders in England leveraged their structural power to shape the mortgage market support schemes that were introduced in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis. These schemes have since underpinned their exceptional levels of profitability. We conclude, though, that far from being an absolute resource, this structural power was only enabled by the prevailing neoliberal, home-owning Anglo-liberal ‘growth model’ in which these housebuilders were embedded.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Geography and Planning (GEOPL)
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
ISSN:	1469-3569
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	16 May 2024
Date of Acceptance:	15 May 2024
Last Modified:	23 Oct 2024 14:38
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/168976

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