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Councils can unlock diversity in housing supply

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How can self-build and community-led housing become mainstream? Tom Chance, policy officer at the National Housing Taskforce, has some answers 

When the sprawling suburbs of our cities and towns were developed, most of the homes were built by small firms. The ten biggest companies only built around six per cent of houses.

Today the top ten build half of all new homes in the UK, with smaller firms building another 40 per cent and self-build bringing the remaining ten per cent.

Bringing up the rear is a tiny, but growing, sector of community-led housing. Community land trusts, co-operatives and co-housing are the three best known approaches, and between them are estimated to be building up to 450 homes a year, just 0.3 per cent of the market.

In continental Europe it’s a different story. At one end of the scale, 80 per cent of new homes are self-built with small firms in Austria. Examples of community-led regeneration and custom build in the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark are becoming increasingly well-known in the UK.

So how can we make these practices more mainstream in England?

That’s the question being asked by an inquiry of the National Housing Taskforce focusing on new sources of supply.

The taskforce was set up by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Housing and Planning and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, who wanted to produce a report that had support across political parties and industry sectors. The challenge is to find clear and workable policies we can all agree on, rather than pitting landowners against planners, developers against residents.

We’ve received 84 submissions of written evidence and held roundtables around the country, culminating in a hearing in Parliament at the end of October.

The report will be published in late January, but here’s what we’ve been hearing so far.

There is a huge appetite among small firms, self builders and community-led providers. But they’re being frustrated by a market that seems rigged against them.

Councils have a key role to play. They can release land, design planning policies, convene partnerships and help with access to finance. But they need to align their policies and processes across services like housing, planning, asset management and legal. They also need to navigate issues like best consideration, competitive procurement and state aid that frequently trip innovative projects up.

The government could fund and procure panels of experts drawn from councils and third parties that have successfully navigated all these challenges. Any council whose leadership is signed up to supporting new sources of supply could commission these experts to help them get it right. This approach has worked well for the Dutch Government with self-build, and for the Greater London Authority with town centre regeneration.

Certain private landowners could be a major boon to community-led providers. Many owners care about stewardship and their local communities, particularly when a lack of affordable housing is threatening the viability of the local shop, primary school and pub. But they don’t want their land and homes to be lost to the community through policies like Right to Buy and Starter Homes. The local communities also often need rented housing, but funding is currently exclusively directed at home ownership. So greater clarity and flexibility from government could unlock a lot of land and homes in small towns and villages.

Small firms should be all set with a supportive council and landowners. Community-led providers just need a little extra help to get going. Groups need their hand held from first scoping out their idea and understanding the process, through to finding a site, selecting partners and getting the finance.

Here the evidence points to the crucial role of local or regional ‘hubs’ – organisations with the local knowledge and contacts, and the resources to support groups. Some already exist, such as half a dozen ‘umbrella’ Community Land Trusts. Others are starting to bubble up in places like London, Leeds and Bristol. The government could create a fund to pump-prime these hubs, which can eventually cover their own costs by recovering fees on successful projects.

These policies scratch the surface of the evidence we’ve received, but could create the right environment for small, self- and community-led builders to thrive in England.

tomchance
Tom Chance is policy officer at the Housing and Planning APPG National Housing Taskforce

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