What does the Housing Industry want from a new Government?
A fresh start, a new broom. After 14 years we can roll out the cliches, but also expect more than that. Significant changes have been promised by Labour, both in the manifesto and in discussions since the election. Here some key figures from the housing industry outline their main asks from the new administration.
Andy Hulme, Chief Executive, Hyde Group
After the challenges of the last few years and the political uncertainty that has accompanied much of it, it’s welcome to see a government with a clear manifesto commitment to deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable house building in a generation. In the next settlement for social housing rents, it’s vitally important this government delivers long-term certainty to help us unlock additional private sector investment with a 10-year, inflation-linked settlement and a 10-year funding programme to build more affordable homes. Given the scale of housing challenges people across the country face, there is no time to lose.
Polly Neate, Chief Executive, Shelter
People are fed up with piecemeal policies. To deliver meaningful change, the new government must turbocharge building social housing – we need 90,000 social homes a year for ten years to clear the waiting list and help eradicate homelessness. And to fix renting, they must bring forward an urgent bill in the King’s Speech that scraps no-fault evictions in their entirety, limits in-tenancy rent increases, and extends notice periods.
Justin Young, Chief Executive, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
It is vital that Labour bestow an urgency to translate the plethora of promises into sound and workable policy. Regardless of who is assigned to key positions across our sector, they must be given the time to execute their mandate; one of the reasons why we’ve seen such a lack of progress in house building and construction is because we’ve had 16 housing ministers since 2010.
Muyiwa Oki, President, the Royal Institute of British Architects
Labour’s manifesto doesn’t have all the answers but it shows ambition – not least to tackle the housing crisis by boosting the delivery of high-quality homes and fixing our broken planning system. The time for bold, decisive action to deliver a safer, greener and more equitable built environment is now. We look forward to working together over the coming years – bringing architects’ expertise to the table to solve the complex challenges our country faces.
Nick Gray, UK and Europe Chief Operating Officer, Currie & Brown
The government must also commit to a properly costed infrastructure development plan and deliver against these commitments to avoid the volatility that has left earlier important initiatives, such as HS2, with unclear or ambiguous goals. Construction is fragmented within Whitehall and spread across several different spending departments. The new government would do well to address this misalignment to improve efficiency.
Kate Henderson, Chief Executive, the National Housing Federation
After 14 years of cuts and policy uncertainty, we will require urgent action to shore up the sector’s finances, protect vital services, ramp up delivery of new homes and deliver for residents. We want to establish a collaborative relationship with our new government and work together to secure the future of social housing as part of a long term plan for housing.
Brian Berry, Chief Executive, the Federation of Master Builders
The success of Labour’s housing targets will very much depend on two key issues being addressed. First, the need to reform the planning system to make it easier and quicker to build. Secondly, the urgent need to tackle the skills crisis ensuring we have enough skilled workers in the construction industry to build the homes needed.
Matthew Walker, Chair, PlaceShapers
Our new prime minister’s commitment to building more social housing is a great place to start to end the housing crisis. PlaceShapers was encouraged by Labour’s commitment to devolve housing powers to local decision-makers. The election outcome will not immediately ease the pressures in the sector, so we urge the government to ensure housing associations have the support they need to respond to the increasing challenges they, and their residents, face.
With thanks to Inside Housing and Housing Today for the interviews