The last few weeks have seen plenty of debate on what needs to be done to solve the UK’s housing crisis…

One suggestion raised at the recent UKPP event was the option of second cities outside London to ease the pressure on housing in the capital.

During the Queen's Speech, plans were announced to build a Northern Powerhouse, which Chancellor George Osborne revealed in his first post-election speech would be “a revolution in the way we govern England".

The Queen stated: "To bring different parts of our country together, my government will work to bring about a balanced economic recovery. Legislation will be introduced to provide for the devolution of powers to cities with elected metro mayors, helping to build a northern powerhouse."

DFT asked those within the industry whether this could be the key to solving the housing crisis and would it ease the pressure on London?

Bob Sturges, Head of Communications at Omni Capital, felt the vision for a Northern Powerhouse was a rare example of radical thought which has emerged during the coalition years.

“Our great cities of the North - Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds and Newcastle - have a vital role to play in helping rebalance the UK economy. This should not be at the expense of the capital's outstanding success, but in a way that mobilises the full talent and resources of the country,” said Bob.

“Job-creation is key to this. London and the South East are popular because the jobs are here. Create secure, fulfilling, well-paid work elsewhere and, in time, people will move. So will the need and demand for housing.”

Speaking at the UKPP conference, Paul Turton, Business Development RBS NatWest at Real Estate Finance, argued that there wasn’t an undersupply of housing across the UK.

“I think if you go up to the regions there are houses there and the question is, are the employment zones in the right areas?” said Paul.

“Should we actually be encouraging employment zones during construction as well as high speed rail links?”

Ashley Ilsen of Regentsmead agreed and felt the key to make it happen was infrastructure.

“Projects such as HS2 and Crossrail are essential to easing the demand on housing around London and shifting this to other areas, however these require huge amounts of investment which is always difficult, particularly in times of austerity,” said Ashley.

“Another alternative would be tax relief for larger businesses looking to have offices in the UK. The ‘go to’ areas are always London and the South East however there are ways of encouraging companies to move their job requirements to other parts of the country.”

Zed Lorgat of JM Financial also felt attracting big companies to the North was key for moving the strategy forward but questioned the idea’s long term future.

“It begs the question: ‘will smarter people choose to still work in the capital and travel home to northern cities, and live in much more value for money property?’” said Zed.

“Inevitably, it only means that the North would catch up with the South, thus prices increasing more rapidly there, how that then helps the average salaried worker in the north is a question that will be difficult to answer.

“In other words," asked Zed, "Will it merely become a problem that spreads from London to other cities?”