Response to interpellation 2022/23:256 on the decline in housing construction
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
KD notes that there are uncertainties in SCB's statistics regarding housing construction, but that these are well-known and can be taken into account 1. KD argues that the government should not use costly subsidies but instead implement reforms to increase the availability of buildable land, simplify building regulations, and provide incentives for increased construction 1. S argues that the current economic situation makes it uncertain whether the uncertainty in the forecasts remains the same over time 2. M considers that over eight years, it has been missed to implement important structural reforms and that the government must now ensure that the Planning and Building Act is put in order 3. M argues that it is good that the government simplifies the building requirements for student housing 3.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Madam Speaker! Markus Kallifatides has asked me how I and the government view the reliability of the available knowledge regarding the decline in housing construction, whether I see reason to take measures to clarify how many houses are actually started, and what measures I and the government intend to take in the near future so that housing construction will increase.
Initially, I can state that Markus Kallifatides is correct in that there are uncertainties in the statistics that Statistics Sweden, SCB, delivers, statistics which, for obvious reasons, are also lagging. The uncertainties in the statistics are also largely the same over time, why data that signals changes over time should speak its clear language. The uncertainties that exist in the statistics are also well known and can be taken into account. SCB initially measures the start date based on the municipality's start notice, but completion is then made with actual start from the developer for the projects included in the statistics. Both the official statistics and the method for producing these, as well as Boverket's forecasts, are published, which makes it possible for other actors to make their own analyses and assessments. To consider whether there is a need for supplementary measures to the current ones is not relevant at this time.
Boverket regularly carries out forecasts for housing construction. Ahead of the forecasting occasions, SCB's statistics are supplemented with other underlying data when they perform their analyses. The agency has, for example, contacts with both municipalities and companies within the sector. I naturally follow Boverket's work. I would, however, like to emphasize that independent of SCB's and Boverket's forecasts and measurements, analyses and forecasts for, among other things, investments in housing construction are also carried out within the Government Offices.
Madam Speaker! Regarding Markus Kallifatides' third question, I first want to emphasize that it is an important matter for the government that the housing supply functions. We are in a concerning economic situation where the conditions for housing construction have deteriorated rapidly, primarily due to high construction costs, rising interest rates, high inflation, and reduced purchasing power among households. The answer to this, however, cannot be costly subsidies that only risk driving up the cost development. The government wants to develop reforms that increase the availability of buildable land, simplify building regulations, and provide incentives for increased housing construction. Municipalities shall be urged and stimulated to increase their planning readiness, especially regarding small houses. This will, in the long run, lead to an increased and more sustainable level of housing construction while more people get the opportunity to fulfill their housing dreams. The government has so far taken several steps to begin that work. The government has tasked the county administrative boards to report on which measures have been taken in cooperation with the municipalities to promote increased housing construction and has tasked Boverket to propose relaxations of the building requirements for student housing.
In conclusion, I want to say the obvious, that the government follows the economic development closely, which also applies to the situation on the housing market and housing construction, and then not solely based on lagging statistics in a situation where changes occur rapidly.
Markus Kallifatides (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank Minister Andreas Carlson for the answer. I look forward to this debate on the very important issues regarding the situation concerning construction in Sweden and how we are to secure the housing supply in the country now and in the long term.
I will start with the somewhat technical and perhaps complicated part of my interpellation. The background to the interpellation is that voices in the general debate have highlighted a potential problem in our knowledge of the status of housing construction. It might be that housing construction is not cast concrete slabs and actual construction of walls and roofs, but rather that a municipality has only issued a commencement notice. And then not much more happens. We do not really know how things stand.
I note that the Minister in the response considers that I am likely correct in this and that there is a bit of a problem here. But the response also states that the uncertainty surrounding these figures is nevertheless in some way the same over time, so that one should be able to discern a trend in the figures.
Now the problem, Andreas Carlson, is that we are in a very special situation. It was a very long time ago that interest rates rose by 3 percentage points. It was a long time ago that there was full-scale war in Europe. And it was a very long time ago that we had double-digit inflation figures and general economic uncertainty. That is why it is not given that the uncertainty in these forecasts is the same in this specific situation.
That I highlight this somewhat technical issue is against the background that it is actors in the construction sector themselves who speak of stagnation and collapse and that nothing is being built. There is a very great concern among the country's construction workers of losing their jobs. There is a very great concern among the country's house builders of not being able to sell any houses, and to manufacture and build them. And there is a very great concern among all housing seekers and homeless people that we have in this country that we will not get the housing supply in order in the short term and neither in the long term.
Still, the Minister somehow admits in his response to the interpellation that the Government Offices do not quite trust the figures either. Instead, a separate work is underway – a separate assessment activity – through contacts with the industry and people out in the field, so to speak. Then I become very curious, Madam Speaker. What do the Government Offices' assessments look like regarding housing started in 2022, which is still shrouded in obscurity, and 2023, that is, the current year? What do the Government Offices' assessments look like on that point?
I ask the Speaker and the Minister to allow me to return to the third question in my interpellation, namely the one regarding measures for housing construction, in a subsequent contribution in this debate.
Lars Beckman (M)
Madam Speaker! Thank you for the answer to the interpellation from the Socialdemokraterna, Minister!
I amused myself by looking at how many housing ministers Sweden has had since 2014. I was at the Hyresgästföreningen last spring - it was the election campaign, and they had a hearing - and I asked them what Sweden's housing minister was called. There were over a hundred people in the room. How many of these hundred elected representatives in Hyresgästföreningen raised their hands and knew what Sweden's housing minister was called? The answer is zero. Not a single person in that room knew what Sweden's housing minister was called. When I ask the same question in 2026, Madam Speaker, I naturally hope that a hundred people in Hyresgästföreningen will raise their hands.
The truth is that we have eight lost years behind us. It is eight lost years where Sweden has at times been in a period of high economic growth and one could have implemented important reforms to accelerate housing construction. Unfortunately, the Social Democrats got stuck in the belief that it was subsidies that would solve housing construction. Now, however, we have a government and a housing minister in place who will seriously tackle structural reforms. They shall seriously ensure that we get the Planning and Building Act and the processes that are to be implemented in order.
An important issue that affects many young people in Sweden is, of course, the mandate that the government announced in the budget bill, namely that it should become much easier to build student housing. It is a very important mandate. Boverket has been given the mandate to submit proposals on relaxations of the building requirements so that more young people can live, and I saw that even DN - that is Dagens Nyheter, which has one of the most government-critical editorial pages in Sweden - thought it was good. They thought it was a very good proposal that the government has put forward. Students, namely, live for shorter periods in their housing and can live a bit more simply, but they want cheap student rooms.
I think it is very good that the government is doing this. Then it is naturally required that we get a small house movement in place, because in all surveys where young people - and also other people - are asked where they want to live, the answer is often that they want to live in small houses. For eight years we have had a government that has prioritized other things. I really hope that we get a folkhem movement started for the construction of small houses.
There we have the assignment that the Minister for Housing has given to the county administrative boards, namely that instead of trying to prevent construction, they shall encourage construction. They are saying in earnest to the county administrative boards, for example the one in Gävleborg, that they shall conduct a dialogue with the municipalities regarding where new construction is planned. They say: Talk now about where the new small house areas are planned! I believe that truly encouraging municipalities to build is incredibly important.
It would be interesting if Markus Kallifatides, for example, could name some of the reforms that the housing ministers implemented during the previous period. For eight years, we had a Social Democratic government. For eight years, one could have presented reforms from the housing ministers at that time. It would therefore be interesting to hear which of the reforms implemented 2014-2022 that Markus Kallifatides is most proud of.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.