COMMENT: It was inevitable that the government would hold talks with housebuilders about extending the Help to Buy scheme as part of the effort to get the industry building again after the lockdown is eased.
Absolutely no surprises there. If the forecasts are to believed, and the economy is to shrink by as much as a third, then it is wholly right and proper that the powers that be are rebooting their most popular housing policy of recent times – even if that policy is “economically illiterate”, as was claimed in open session at last year’s Conservative Party conference. Everyone must do all they can.
However, the hard fact remains that Help to Buy is still a demand side measure. And we are in desperate need of things to stimulate the supply side. After all, once the Covid-19 crisis subsides, the housing crisis will still be with us. It’s been several decades in the making.
Benevolent building
Peter Bill and I are just putting the finishing touches to our opus about the housing crisis (called Broken Homes – facts, faults and fixes for the housing market, it will be a must-read, I promise, due out September-ish, crisis permitting).
It remains to be seen whether our timing is brilliant or abysmal. And, spoiler alert, we don’t have any magic bullets. But one of the partial solutions we advocate is a benevolent stewardship-type model, which takes its inspiration from way before we had council housing – going back in history to seek good models of high-quality, popular and locally affordable homes, many of which were provided by the private sector.
This includes “model villages” built to house workers in places like Port Sunlight, Bournville, New Lanark and Saltaire. Another touchstone was the old estates built by the likes of Guinness and Peabody. We concluded that it can be done. Because it was done.
But who is going to do it now? Actually, we take the view that it really doesn’t matter, as long as it is done. We champion the models pursued by the likes of Urban & Civic, Harworth Estates and Grosvenor, and now unashamedly being emulated by my own company, UK Regeneration.
Long-term commitment
There is, springing up, a band of newish, far less cynical, “strat-land” operators in the housing market. And there are signs that this market is expanding, with firms like Cloud Wing in Bedford, which wants to buy land outright, keep it for the long term and put out serviced plots to the market, while retaining the overall control of the estate – a million miles away from the old “flipping” brigade.
It is pretty much a “stewarded housebuilding model” and – for those, like the inestimable George Clarke, who are calling for a return to council housing – it can be tended by either the public or the private sector.
Hurrah then (yet again) for Homes England, the government’s housing agency, declaring that it is to step up as “master developer” to create development opportunities and provide a pipeline of sites for housebuilders of all sizes.
Bang! Straight after the bank holiday, the government’s “muscular housing agency” announced that it has acquired 19 sites in the last financial year worth £180m, with the land having the capacity for 5,000 new homes across the country. This sends a clear signal of how the agency is taking a long-term view of housing demand in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A helping hand
Homes England is looking to acquire challenging or stalled sites that are unable to progress without public sector intervention, and use its resources and expertise to unlock them for development and bring them back to market, ultimately resulting in much-needed new homes. On all the sites, Homes England will deliver the infrastructure before marketing the site to developers in parcels, accelerating the delivery of new homes.
They mean business. Simon Dudley, interim Homes England chair, said: “I want to reassure the sector that Homes England is… investing in a long-term pipeline of development opportunities to support market recovery. The need for new housing will remain a priority…”
By acquiring difficult sites and addressing the barriers which have previously stopped them moving into production, Homes England is making sure they can deliver their mission to accelerate the construction of new homes while addressing the short-term disruption caused by the impact of coronavirus.
I can see a new band of partnerships emerging, whether it is Homes England directly with housebuilders or private sector master developers or local authority land owners supported by Homes England – or any permutation or combination thereof. But at every one of these strategic sites there will be a powerful boost provided to the local economy by people working together in partnership to rebuild. It will be Brave New World stuff. In will be a series of very local Marshall Plans.
Long-termism and resilience will be the order of the day. The message is clear: Homes England is stewarding the national movement. And there is plenty of room in this market for people who wish to step up and play fair.
Jackie Sadek is chief operating officer at UK Regeneration
