The five key housing moments of 2014

1. More garden cities announced

First, by convention, let’s deal with the good news. Whichever party or muddled gang of ideologues forms a government after May 2015, we can expect a new generation of garden cities to be developed and along with them tens of thousands of sorely-needed new homes. The first to get official sign-off is Bicester, where 13,000 new properties are expected to be built.

The location of the next tranche will no doubt be contested bitterly, but the ideological battle has already been won. The speed at which the three parties all fell in behind planning experts and housing advisers in supporting garden cities surprised everyone.

As TCPA chief executive Kate Henderson said: “When we had the general election four years ago, there was no talk of large-scale new communities, and over the last couple of years it’s really grown in profile.”

Best of all, these new garden cities will also be led by development corporations which hold the power to make decisions for the long term on new housing unencumbered by the typical decision-by-1,000-committees process. A very welcome move.

2. Housing got (another) new minister

But when it comes to politics, not everything has been handled with such skill. The ministerial reshuffle was a particular low point for housing this year. The fourth housing minister in as many years makes the post a mockery under this coalition government.

Usually a ministerial reshuffling indicates one of two things: success rewarded with promotion, or failure marked out by a the disappearance of said minister into obscurity. Instead, housing experienced a job swap between Kris Hopkins and Brandon Lewis, each now working on the other’s former brief. A poor sign for housing under a future Conservative administration.

3. The Lyons review

Labour can’t rest easy, however. It’s own omnishambles came in the form of an unambitious, fragmented and unconvincing review of its own housing policy. The Lyons review proved yet another dog that failed to bark: sensible suggestions on allowing councils to borrow to build and forcing councils to draw up local plans were undermined by a lack of imagination in tackling a growing and complex crisis.

Meanwhile, strategies sketched out by shadow minister Emma Reynolds were too reliant on self-build and the performance of small developers, lacking clarity on breaking the cartels and vested interests that hamper private development. The nod to Generation Rent feels more like box-ticking for a focus group rather than a suite of policies ready to be brought into action in May. And I have yet to see any strategy bold enough to force the public sector to release its own land for the good of all. Labour’s review and policies have lacked a big story to tell at a time when voters are thirsty for a vision of the future in which safe, secure and affordable housing might be theirs.

4. Renters’ voices got louder

This year, we also discovered how perilously close politicians are to being fundamentally out of touch. Published in October, research by Generation Rent revealed that more than 100 MPs will represent more renters than homeowners by 2021. Key seats in historically middle-class cities such as Bournemouth and Reading are shifting as young people are pushed out of home ownership.

Now the figures are in, we move into 2015 with renters being taken seriously by politicians for the first time in a generation, and arguably longer. With most MPs being homeowners (and many landlords on top), do they really understand renters’ needs? Not yet, say campaigners, and there’s little time left to prove differently before we go to the ballot box.

5. Government lost its grip on housing market

Finally, when I wrote in April that government had lost control of the housing market, I received some criticism in response. At the time, house prices were spiralling upwards leaving a huge proportion of households unable to secure a mortgage despite measures introduced to help ordinary access home ownership. As I write in December, the opposite is happening. After a summer surge, the market is cooling with the weather. Across the country, prices are dropping again. In London a dramatic £30,000 has fallen off asking prices – not final sale prices, which often fall faster – in just four weeks. So yes, government has lost control of the housing market. In 2015, the housing market will finally begin to exert control over the government.