Housing & Communities

Quality homes in thriving communities are the basis on which happy and flourishing lives are built. Yet for many households in Britain, these two cornerstones are lacking.

At a time of immense housing need, housebuilding is falling, with starts and completions below pre-pandemic levels. Homelessness continues to cripple local authority budgets, with over 134,000 households in temporary accommodation as of 2025 Q4. Rough sleeping has also hit a record high, as a total of 4,793 people slept rough on a single night in Autumn 2025.

Britain’s communities are also suffering from an epidemic of high street crime, with shoplifting hitting a record high in 2025. This comes as criminal high street businesses – Britain’s dodgy shops – have hijacked town and city centres, with seven pubs lost for every new vape shop over the last decade. Polling shows that 68 per cent of Brits say there are too many vape shops on the high street, while 58 per cent say there are too many barber shops.

This year, we will outline how the government can renew Britain’s communities, by tackling the crime wave afflicting our high streets and town centres. We will also lay out a plan to reform the affordable and social housing system in England, putting fairness for the taxpayer and the interests of the most disadvantaged at the heart of our recommendations.