Nationalise big housebuilders for affordable homes

Britain’s biggest housebuilder, Persimmon, has announced 2021 profits of £970 million – an increase by nearly a quarter.

Closer examination of the results shows that it built 14,551 homes in total, making a profit of £66,000 per house. They received £3,449.7 million in sales of homes, meaning that each house sold on average for £237,000. That makes the profit on each home 27%!

If housebuilding companies like Persimmon were publicly owned, and houses sold at cost price, they would be sold for less than three quarters of their current price. How about that as a quick route to making new houses more affordable?

Bill Reed, West London Socialist Party