Response to interpellation 2022/23:321 on housing policy and the situation on the housing market
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns housing policy and the situation on the housing market. KD argues that housing construction is affected by the economic climate, high interest rates, inflation, and energy prices 1 2 3. KD considers that the government prioritizes supporting vulnerable families with children through increased housing allowances 1 2 and is working to prevent evictions 1. KD wants to develop reforms that increase the availability of buildable land, simplify building regulations, and provide incentives for increased construction 1. KD emphasizes the importance of lowering the thresholds so that more people can own their homes 2. KD argues that the government has presented a tight budget with investments 3 and is working on reforms for a socially sustainable housing supply 3. V argues that the government is unable to handle the acute housing shortage 4.
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)
Mr. Speaker! Malcolm Momodou Jallow has asked me what measures I intend to take to contribute to increasing housing construction, how I intend to meet the housing shortage for the most vulnerable households, who de facto cannot buy a small house or other owned housing, what housing policy measures I intend to take given the situation on the housing market and the economic situation so that households do not become even more burdened by debt than they are today, and what I intend to do within my area of responsibility in the short term to ensure that children in families that are currently in the danger zone are not evicted from their homes.
I want to begin by pointing out that it is of the utmost importance for the government that housing is built throughout the country. We are in a difficult economic situation, and many households have experienced increased living costs. The construction and housing market is under severe pressure. Housing construction has always been affected by the economic cycle, so it is not surprising that housing construction is now slowing down as the economy weakens. The reduced pace of construction is due, among other things, to the rising interest rates, the high inflation, which of course affects construction costs, and increased energy prices which also reduce the purchasing power of households.
Under the tough economic situation that has existed since the government took office, the government has focused on supporting particularly vulnerable households. In order to protect families with children with low incomes against the sharp price increases, the government has therefore, in the autumn budget for 2023, prioritized proposing an extension and an increase of the temporary supplementary grant to families with children receiving housing allowance during the period 1 July–31 December 2023.
This is important for all children in the approximately 110,000 families who currently receive housing allowance. It is a measure that can also reduce the risk of indebtedness and potential eviction. The Government decided on 13 April to mandate a committee to analyze how borrower-based macroprudential measures, such as mortgage caps and amortization requirements, have functioned so far and how they can be designed in the future to manage macroeconomic risks and consumer protection in a purposeful manner.
The Swedish Enforcement Authority has been tasked to work towards establishing a prevention-oriented cooperation with social services and landlords in all municipalities. The work shall be specifically focused on preventing evictions involving children. The assignment shall be finalized in the annual report for 2024. The County Administrative Boards have, as part of the homelessness strategy, been tasked during 2022-2026 to support the municipalities in their work to counter homelessness.
The Government does not believe that the housing shortage can be solved with costly subsidies with low precision. Instead, the Government wants to develop reforms that increase the availability of developable land, simplify and improve the building regulations, and provide incentives for increased housing construction.
In order for people's demand and need for housing to be met, it is important that there is a supply of different types of tenure forms and housing that suit different stages of life. Boverket is working on the project Möjligheternas byggregler, which aims to modernize and simplify Boverket's building rules and construction rules. The new rules shall promote innovation and technical development and contribute to making construction more efficient and favoring increased competition. Municipalities shall be urged and stimulated to increase their planning readiness, particularly regarding small houses. I also want to mention the government's mandate to the county administrative boards to report on what measures have been taken in cooperation with the municipalities to promote increased housing construction.
Malcolm Momodou Jallow (V)
Mr. Speaker! As late as December last year, I stood here in the chamber together with the Minister for Housing. He had then, in principle, only one housing policy message: More people should own small houses. And then he sometimes adds the sentence: The Government is working intensively. It is like standing still and then suddenly shouting loudly and saying: I am running fast! There is some kind of cognitive dissonance there. What one does and what one says one does are two completely different things.
It has now been just over half a year since the government took office. In the housing policy area, the message we hear from the Minister for Housing is once again: More people shall own small houses. Parallel to the Minister for Housing's small house dreams, we are still living with the highest inflation rate since the 90s. We continue to have very high food and electricity prices, and the rent increases are the highest in decades.
At the same time, we know that the debt of Swedish households is the third largest in the EU. With the high interest rates, it is very difficult today for very many households to cover the most basic expenses, whether it concerns households in owned or rented housing.
But while homelessness continues to increase and children continue to be evicted from their homes in one of the world's richest countries in 2023, the Minister for Housing continues to hammer out: More shall own small houses. The government simply does not seem to understand the gravity of the situation, for even in this year's spring budget, the government continued to show how incapable it is when it comes to handling the acute situation on the housing market.
I am far from the only one who has noticed this, but rather the opposite. Soon, almost all of Byggsverige has condemned the government's lack of policy. Almost daily, one can read posts and articles in the media from various actors in the industry. Everyone is asking what the government is doing and why the Minister for Housing is so silent. Comments and reforms are being requested from the Minister for Housing.
After the presentation of the spring budget, not a single positive word followed. The construction materials trade's reaction read: "Reforms on the housing market are conspicuously absent." Veidekke, which has long warned of a storm within housing construction, now speaks of a collapse: "The collapse of housing construction risks turning into a long-term infrastructure crisis." This refers to a report that Veidekke has written, where they thus speak of an infrastructure crisis.
The youth organization Jagvillhabostad.nu also asks what the government is doing. They call for "an active state housing policy that, with economic tools and goal-oriented guidelines, helps the municipalities and construction companies to build away the housing shortage." And just like so many others, Jagvillhabostad.nu asks: "Government, what are you waiting for?"
Mr. Speaker! We are here today because we hope to get an answer to exactly that question: What are you waiting for? Why is the Minister for Housing not acting in these times of crisis? How much must housing construction fall before the government thinks it is time to do something? How great must the homelessness be? How many alarming reports of evicted children do we need to see before the Minister for Housing acts?
The fact is that the only thing the government has done so far is to remove the only reform, that is to say, the support that goes towards building housing.
Now I would like to hear what the Minister for Housing has to say.
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Mr. Speaker! Malcolm Momodou Jallow asked four questions in the interpellation. I recommend that the members visit the Riksdag's excellent website and rewind the debate to listen to the answers I gave to each of the questions.
It is about, for example, the most economically vulnerable households, where the government has extended but also increased the temporary housing allowance for families with children. It affects 110,000 children in families that have the toughest conditions and the lowest margins.
When it comes to the mandate of the Swedish Enforcement Authority and the mandate of the County Administrative Boards, I gave answers to the questions about what we do for the most vulnerable.
When it comes to the question of the sharp slowdown in housing construction, it is exactly as I said, Mr. Speaker, in my opening response: Housing construction has always been affected by the economic cycle. It is therefore not surprising in itself that housing construction is now slowing down as the economy weakens.
The reduced construction rate is primarily due to rising interest rates, the high inflation, which of course affects construction costs, and increased energy prices, which also reduce the purchasing power of households. This is a development that in all respects is due to global factors and which, in the short term, is very difficult to influence.
The government is firmly determined to develop reforms and implement measures that can counteract the decline but also, in a longer perspective, dismantle the structural obstacles that exist and that have been built up over a long period. It is about plans, land and lead times as well as shortening and improving building regulations.
I hear how Malcolm Momodou Jallow speaks about the will that not only the government has, but many people in Sweden have, namely to be able to own their own home, to live in a small house. Seven out of ten want to live in a small house, according to several different measurements. To not take that into account and see what we can do to lower the thresholds so that more can own their own home, that more can realize their housing dreams, is perhaps the answer to why it looks the way it does when Malcolm Momodou Jallow speaks in this way in the chamber about the desire that so many people in our country have. It does not mean that there should not simultaneously be different forms of tenure that suit different stages of life. That also appeared in my previous answer.
We have tasked Boverket with simplifying the rules significantly regarding student housing so that more people who move to a location to study will be able to have accommodation in that location, which is important for a knowledge nation like Sweden.
An intensive and active work is underway, and I look forward to returning to the Riksdag with many reforms in the housing area during the mandate period.
Malcolm Momodou Jallow (V)
Mr. Speaker! I look forward to seeing the reforms that the Minister is talking about.
As a politician, one wants to believe that politics can make a difference, that politics can change things. But if something is to change, political decisions must first and foremost be made. Then the government must also be prepared to allocate economic resources, if that is what is needed to implement a political decision. None of this is being done by the Minister for Housing.
Mr. Speaker! Sweden is at this moment heading straight into a deep construction crisis. All forecasts show the same thing. There will be at least a halving of the number of construction starts already this year, from over 70,000 construction starts in 2021 to between 25,000 and 30,000 construction starts this year. It is catastrophic. The Stockholm region is particularly hard hit, where the County Administrative Board warns that housing construction could fall by as much as 80 percent.
Andreas Carlson has not had the economy on his side since he took office as housing minister. That must truly be acknowledged. There is war in Europe, skyrocketing electricity prices, shocking food prices, the highest inflation in over 30 years, and a population that is finding it increasingly difficult to make their money stretch.
And in the midst of all this, housing construction is heading towards a total collapse, according to the construction industry. But tough times are a reality for all of us, and they are a large part of the everyday life of politics. Tough times require tough actions.
So what should a Minister for Urban Planning, Construction and Housing do in these times of crisis? Nothing - if we listen to the right-conservative blue-brown government with its support party. Nothing - if we listen to the Housing Minister - other than that more people should own small houses and that the government is working intensively. No proposals for housing policy measures will come, and even less will housing policy receive any economic resources.
When will we be spared from hearing the housing minister's universal answer, namely that more people must own, take out mortgages and build a small house and that the government is working intensively?
These are out-of-touch mantras that we have heard many times. Now it is a time of crisis, and we must act. It is not enough to say that one is working intensively and then stand and trudge in the same spot.
People cannot afford food, and more and more do not even have a secure home of their own. How does the minister expect these people to be able to take out loans to build themselves a house if they cannot afford to buy food?
It is just as important to emphasize that Vänsterpartiet has nothing against small houses. A varied and, not least, a balanced housing market is good for all wallets and tastes. Everyone has different opportunities, and everyone wants different things – even when it comes to housing. Vänsterpartiet has no problems at all with mixed development.
But just as importantly, it is to emphasize that the Left Party's and my primary headache are all those who have it toughest in society. This applies to those who are evicted and those who do not even have a home to be evicted from, to begin with. They are my priority, that is to say all those who cannot afford to build a small house and who also do not get a private rental apartment. It may be because of poverty or because of the skewed housing market that fails to manage to build rental apartments with reasonable rents. They are the ones I am talking about. They are my primary priority, not the Christian Democrats' small houses. Nor is it the Sweden Democrats' constant agitation against socially vulnerable areas in general and against immigrants in particular, and neither is it the Moderates' desire for rule changes in the shore protection so that more villas can be built with a lake view on land that today is part of our right of public access.
My priority will always be all those who, for various reasons, find it hardest to manage on today's profit-focused housing market. Or I can say as the Tenants' Association (Hyresgästföreningen) has written in its report: millionaire programs instead of million programs.
Mr. Speaker! Can the Minister for Housing, for once, take the time to tell us here today what he and the government intend to do to meet the housing shortage for the most economically vulnerable households, i.e., those who cannot buy a small house?
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Mr. Speaker! I thank Malcolm Momodou Jallow for the questions. I have already answered several of them.
Let me state that it is honorable of the member to still bring up the global factors, namely the high inflation, the war in Europe, and that household purchasing power is decreasing. It is those types of global factors and the fluctuating economic situation that have always affected housing construction and do so also this time. It is in itself nothing unexpected.
At the same time, it is of course important with political decisions to ensure a responsible budget to keep inflation down. It is the most important measure for the most vulnerable, and that is why the government has presented a tight and restrained budget. It simultaneously contained large investments and an increased housing allowance for the most vulnerable: for 110,000 children in the families covered by it. I have also accounted for the assignments we have given, for example to the Swedish Enforcement Authority, regarding countering eviction and removal.
Malcolm Momodou Jallow also asks how more people can be able to borrow. The Government decided on 13 April to task a committee with analyzing how borrower-based macroprudential measures, such as the mortgage cap and the amortization requirement, have functioned so far and how they can be designed in the future to handle both macroeconomic risks and consumer protection in a purposeful way. A committee has been appointed to work on this.
Let me also tell you about the assignment I have given to the county administrative boards to report on which measures are being implemented in cooperation with the municipalities to promote increased housing construction. I have already mentioned the assignment to Boverket for significant relaxations of the building requirements for student housing, so that there will be more student housing in Sweden.
The Government is also preparing the report of the inquiry on socially sustainable housing supply. The inquiry has sought solutions that can contribute to a development where more people, based on their own ability, can manage to secure a good home. Furthermore, the many proposals from the Building Permit Inquiry are on the Government's table. It aims for a simpler, more efficient, and more purposeful regulatory framework. The report has been referred, and the proposals are now being prepared at a high tempo in the Government Offices.
The government appointed a committee for higher productivity growth on 24 April. The committee shall analyze which factors affect productivity growth and submit proposals to raise it in the business sector and increase productivity in the public sector. The assignment includes, among other things, analyzing the need for reforms to raise productivity growth in the business sector, including in the area of the housing market. These were a few measures, but they still show what a high pace we have. I look forward to returning with the reforms that we have established in the budget and presented to the Riksdag that we are working on.
When Malcolm Momodou Jallow says "nothing," those listening to this debate can compare it with all the measures that I have already presented and those that we intend to return to.
Malcolm Momodou Jallow (V)
Mr. Speaker! High tempo, we heard the Minister say. But everyone else in the construction sector says that nothing is happening. I do not know what high tempo means, because nothing is happening. There is a standstill in housing construction. If it is high tempo, we should see housing construction.
I was hoping for a bit of news from the Minister for Housing here today but received none. In the response, he just repeats everything we have heard before, nothing new under the sun. I assume that the Minister does not have any answer today either.
It is naturally both good and important and completely necessary to fight inflation, but it is not enough. The Minister for Housing and the government must do more.
At the beginning of the 90s, the collapse in the real estate industry was a major and important reason for the financial crisis. No one wants this to repeat itself in a new guise.
It is also important to understand the government's lack of interest in the situation of ordinary people. It cannot be overlooked, but it must stop. It is high time for the minister and this government to realize how incredibly difficult many have it today, and it is high time for the housing minister to understand that it is precisely those people who are most dependent on the existence of a state housing policy.
Poverty is the predominant reason why many do not have a home of their own today and why both families with children and pensioners are evicted from their homes - poverty, nothing else. Therefore, we must have reforms that help people out of poverty. We cannot continue to help the wealthy while people who are poor, pensioners and families with children, are evicted. They struggle to live and pay the rent and energy costs, but to help those people, we do nothing.
The situation is serious. There is much to do. If we talk to each other, we can perhaps find ways out of the socio-political crisis that we are in the middle of right now. It is Vänsterpartiet that is ready to do this.
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Mr. Speaker! I believe that what we have just heard here in the chamber is an expression of what can happen if one has a pre-written conclusion and does not adapt it to what has been heard in the debate.
I have accounted for many different measures and decisions that the government has already taken and made. We will return with further reforms.
The government prioritizes the situation on the housing market, just as I have explained. We prioritize building away the structural obstacles that exist for housing construction. I have explained that. We will return with more reforms.
I look forward to the dialogue. I appreciate the commitment. Malcolm Momodou Jallow says that we can talk to each other. We are doing that here today, and we shall do so next week as well. I look forward to coming to the Committee on Civil Affairs and continuing the dialogue.
Previously, Mr. Speaker, I believe it is soon time to wish each other a pleasant weekend. I also intended to take the opportunity to do so here at the end of this interpellation debate.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.