Edison Capital: Labour's Housing Strategy is Failing and Risks Becoming One of the Government's Greatest Broken Promises
24 Jun 2026
London, United Kingdom – Edison Capital today expressed serious concern over the continuing deterioration of the UK’s residential development market, warning that the Labour Government’s flagship commitment to deliver 1.5 million new homes is already falling dramatically behind schedule.
Recent industry figures indicate that London delivered just 6,325 new homes between March 2025 and March 2026, against an annual target of approximately 88,000 homes. Such a substantial shortfall raises significant questions about whether the Government’s national housing ambitions remain achievable under current economic and policy conditions.
Edison Capital believes the causes are clear and extend well beyond the construction industry itself. Higher borrowing costs, declining investor confidence, increased taxation, rising development costs, prolonged planning delays, enhanced building safety requirements and continuing uncertainty across the property sector have combined to create one of the most challenging development environments in decades.
Developers across London are also reported to be holding thousands of completed but unsold homes, reflecting weakening demand and increasingly constrained affordability for purchasers.
Calum Melville, Chief Executive Officer of Edison Capital, said:
“Housing cannot be delivered through political ambition alone. Homes are built when investors are prepared to commit long-term capital into projects that provide certainty, reasonable returns and predictable regulation. Today, many of those conditions no longer exist.
Successive increases in taxation, expanding regulation, lengthy planning processes and diminishing investor confidence have created an environment where capital is increasingly choosing to invest elsewhere. Governments cannot continually make development more expensive while expecting supply to increase.”
Edison Capital believes the housing sector is experiencing an investment crisis rather than a construction crisis. The company argues that global investment capital remains available but is increasingly being directed towards jurisdictions offering greater regulatory certainty, faster planning decisions and more stable fiscal policies.
The company is calling for a comprehensive review of housing policy, including planning reform, measures to improve investor confidence, increased access to development finance and a more competitive tax environment capable of attracting both domestic and international capital back into UK residential development.
Edison Capital also believes the growing gap between housing commitments and actual delivery risks becoming one of several major policy failures facing the current Government.
“The housing figures represent more than a missed target. They demonstrate a wider failure to create the economic conditions necessary for sustained private sector investment. Unless there is a significant change in policy direction, we believe the Government will fall substantially short of its 1.5 million homes commitment during this Parliament.”
Edison Capital further believes that continued underperformance across housing, alongside challenges in other areas of public policy, will place increasing political pressure on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and his administration over the coming years.
About Edison Capital
Edison Capital is an international investment and operating group with interests spanning real estate, infrastructure, artificial intelligence, data centres, energy, commodities, hospitality, financial services and strategic private equity. The group partners with experienced operators to deploy long-term capital into high-growth sectors across the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East and North America.
