Intervention Point 1: Add Housing to National Risk Register
🧭 What are we trying to do?
We want the UK Government to treat housing instability as a national security risk — just like cyberattacks or energy shortages. Right now, speculative development, land hoarding, and foreign ownership are creating vulnerabilities in our housing system. These must be formally recognised.
🎯 What will this achieve?
- Forces government departments to treat housing as a resilience issue, not just a market problem.
- Unlocks national-level oversight, emergency powers, and policy coordination.
- Opens the door to protective measures like ownership audits, delivery controls, and investment restrictions.
🏛 NATIONAL LEVEL – What should our MP do?
✅ 1. Submit Written Parliamentary Questions
Ask the Cabinet Office if it will include “housing fragility” in the next update of the National Risk Register (NRR) — under:
- Economic Resilience
- Infrastructure Dependency
- Foreign Asset Exposure
✅ 2. Request a Ministerial Meeting
Arrange a meeting with:
- The Minister for the Cabinet Office
- The Deputy Prime Minister
To discuss how speculative land control and housing underdelivery are harming UK resilience.
✅ 3. Push for a Parliamentary Debate
Call for a debate — ideally a Westminster Hall debate — to demand:
- Public recognition of housing fragility as a strategic risk
- Cross-party review of the National Security and Investment Act to cover land
✅ 4. Engage Oversight Committees
Approach the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy to:
- Submit housing evidence
- Ask them to formally assess the link between speculative land control and national security threats
✅ 5. Build a Public Argument
Use your position to:
- Sponsor or support media articles or briefings
- Frame housing policy as a matter of resilience and national sovereignty
🏘 LOCAL LEVEL (EHDC) – What can be done right now?
✅ 1. Flag housing fragility in official reports
EHDC can highlight speculative behaviour and stalled delivery in:
- Authority Monitoring Reports (AMRs)
- Local Plan evidence base
✅ 2. Issue Planning Position Statements (PPS)
Declare through a PPS that:
- The council sees speculative landholding as a threat to planned delivery
- Future allocations will be filtered based on risk
✅ 3. Use delivery data to justify policy changes
Where developer behaviour is slowing down delivery:
- Include these risks in site scoring, phasing, and allocation
- Adjust policy weighting and de-prioritise risky actors
✅ 4. Back legal reforms in local consultation responses
EHDC can write in support of:
- Adding housing fragility to the NRR
- Reforming the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to require delivery risk analysis
🤝 What should our MP do locally?
- Write formally to EHDC asking them to update their AMRs and Local Plan with housing risk language
- Publicly back the council if it takes protective measures (e.g., against land banking)
- Include EHDC’s actions in ministerial briefings and use them as an example of proactive local leadership.