# FILE NAME: 00000489.soc
# TITLE: Should we build more houses in the UK? [000a053636e6bae71bae4fc8ade1caef]
# DESCRIPTION: 
# DATA TYPE: soc
# MODIFICATION TYPE: original
# RELATES TO: 
# RELATED FILES: 
# PUBLICATION DATE: 2025-10-12
# MODIFICATION DATE: 2025-10-12
# NUMBER ALTERNATIVES: 4
# NUMBER VOTERS: 5
# NUMBER UNIQUE ORDERS: 3
# ALTERNATIVE NAME 1: Statement 1 - “The participants agree that more houses should be built in the UK, however we also think that the government needs to focus on preventing homelessness and house hoarding. More houses are required to increase stock, but also to keep prices low and reduce competition for the existing houses. The government's targets will never be met without the support of the public sector and/or incentives for the private sector to meet them.”
# ALTERNATIVE NAME 2: Statement 2 - “The participants agree that more houses should be built in the UK, however we also think that the government needs to focus on preventing homelessness and house hoarding. More houses are required to increase stock, but also to keep prices low and reduce competition for the existing houses. We are also against the government’s planned house building targets because these are unrealistic and the private sector will never reach them without financial incentives.” This final consensus statement was agreed on by the group of participants. We are unsure how the group managed to reach this consensus, however, we have two hypotheses. One of the hypotheses is that the group followed the “Leader Rule” where the most persuasive person in the group will have swayed the opinions of the group and the group agreed to the consensus statement on that basis. Another hypothesis is that the group followed the “Position Rule” where the majority opinion within the group won out and the minority opinion was removed from the final consensus statement.
# ALTERNATIVE NAME 3: Statement 3 - “The participants agree that more houses should be built in the UK. We also think that the government needs to focus on preventing homelessness and house hoarding. More houses are required to increase stock, but also to keep prices low and reduce competition for the existing houses. The participants also agree that current house building targets are achievable, especially if the public sector invests in the short term, which would be repaid through increased economic activity in the long term.”
# ALTERNATIVE NAME 4: Statement 4 - “More houses should be built in the UK to prevent the current housing crisis and the government should create financial incentives to support the construction industry to build more houses. The housing crisis is only partly due to lack of supply and house hoarding is not the cause of the housing crisis, but rather the consequence of a housing market in crisis. Government policy should be focused on reducing the number of homeless people and those at risk of homelessness, rather than on house hoarding. There is also a danger that, without incentives, the construction industry will over-build to an extent that may cause a price crash, hurting investors and destroying the economic benefits of house building. Finally, we do not think that the government’s planned house building targets are unrealistic. The current target is for the building of 300,000 new houses a year. This is a realistically achievable target, but requires a healthy economy and the creation of financial incentives to the construction industry.”
3: 4,3,1,2
1: 1,3,4,2
1: 4,2,3,1