HOUSING TODAY - REFLECTIONS FROM
THE INDUSTRY
This week, Rachel Glover-White was able to attend the annual Housing Today conference, to hear firsthand experiences from various stakeholders in the property industry. The event, hosted at Church House, Westminster, followed her recent involvement with Housing Today through the CIH conference, where we discussed the challenges and opportunities facing the property sector in the wake of a new government. Since the interview in June, we have a new Labour government, Ministerial statements on planning reform, a draft NPPF currently out for consultation, the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower disaster, and a proposed re-introduction of mandatory housing targets. Therefore, it was the perfect time to take stock and hear firsthand how the landscape of change is impacting the industry.
Rachel’s three key takeaways from the discussions were;
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The strain registered providers are under to deliver affordable housing and manage their existing stock;
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The constantly changing regulatory framework that key players in the property industry are operating within and;
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The increasing labour and skills shortage we are currently facing.
In this article, we digest some of these main talking points and what this means for colleagues working in the planning and development sector.
The challenges faced by affordable housing providers
The challenging context RPs are currently operating within was echoed by many of the contributors this week. Speakers voiced concerns about the management of existing stock, the requirement to meet current (and changing) energy efficiency standards and requirements, the cost and challenges of retrofit, and the barriers to accessing sufficient grant funding. But the comment that struck me most, was that two of the attendees confirmed that they had paused any new development pipeline work for the foreseeable future until they can upgrade their current stock and meet the requirements of their existing customers.
As many will be aware, the draft NPPF currently out for consultation, places an increased focus on the delivery of affordable housing, with, in some circumstances, the requirement being increased to 50% of all units. On the face of it, this seems positive that there is such an impetus on increasing the supply of affordable homes. But hearing that many affordable housing developers have paused their new development pipeline, in some cases for up to 5 years, how will this increased requirement ever be met? It seems totally contrary to the national aspiration if the providers and developers are changing their business focus, to solely improve existing housing. Whilst this is important and definitely deserves proper focus and funding, could this lead to a scenario whereby many homes are approved as affordable (under new government targets), yet there is limited appetite for affordable housing providers to acquire them given their own internal funding pressures?
The ever-changing regulatory framework
One speaker cited at least 10 regulatory changes that had been imposed in as many years. Ranging from fire safety, which in the wake of the Grenfell Tower inquiry is, quite rightly the focus of the industry, to building regulations and energy efficiency standards.
It was noted that given the time taken to deliver development in this country, often the regulatory framework at the project inception is wildly different to what exists at completion stage. This presents significant challenges to developers and investors and generates uncertainty and nervousness in the market.
When attendees of Housing Today were asked, the vast majority (nearly 80%) cited changing regulation as a factor to investor and developers having wavering confidence and certainty about certain projects.
Whilst it is acknowledged that the industry needs to keep pace, and regulations are needed to ensure projects meet current standards, there is a huge amount of concern about the pace at which frameworks change and the expectation that developers, contractors and investors will just absorb these evolutions and overcome the challenges.
The availability of labour and skills
There is no denying that we’re on the cusp of massive change, and huge amounts of opportunity in the development sector. However, every single speaker at the conference cited concerns around training, skills and the availability of labour. Whilst there are brilliant initiatives aiming to promote young people entering the workforce, there remains a huge deficit of knowledge and skills. Coupled with the ever-changing regulatory framework as outlined above, attendees raised nervousness about the actual ability of the market to deliver on the aspirations of the government.
And whilst the physical availability of people to undertake the work is important, so is ensuring that those in a decision-making capacity are properly trained and informed on the policies, guidelines and requirements that inform such decisions.
From a planning perspective, Biodiversity Net Gain is creating huge waves in the determination of every planning application. And whilst we, in the private sector, are able to upskill and invest the time and money into learning and development, it seems that unfortunately, the same isn’t always true for the public sector. If we want decisions to be made which deliver on the national aspiration, then we must empower our decision makers with the knowledge and skills to properly assess and interrogate technical information which is comparable to the level of investment in the private sector.
Summary
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Overall, the conference shone a light on some very interesting discussion points which are ever present in the work we do. The excitement about the opportunity ahead was evident, yet there were key concerns and take aways which industry players had some nervousness around.