By Bonnie Ross, Associate Director, White Label
With the UK’s housing crisis showing no sign of abating, almost immediately they came to power, the new Labour government stated their commitment to delivering 1.5m new homes within this Parliament.
At White Label, we have always agreed that housing delivery is not just a tick box exercise of meeting targets. We have worked alongside many organisations committed not just to delivering ‘units’, but homes that are safe and affordable, have effective public transport provision, a mix of tenures and offer access to employment – in short, sustainable communities.
There are of course massive cost implications in the creation of new housing, but poor housing and homelessness are also costly. The link between poor housing and health inequalities is well known and poor housing has been estimated to be as damaging to health as alcohol and smoking, at vast cost to the NHS. Children who grow up in poor housing conditions have lower chances of educational attainment and a higher risk of offending behaviour. This all represents a cost to the State, as does housing homeless families in temporary accommodation.
These challenges and opportunities to provide real homes for the many people who need a safe and affordable place to live have always been a central theme of our garden community development conference – now renamed Building New Communities.
They will be a core focus again when we bring the industry together for the 2025 conference at RIBA on Tuesday 29 April 2025 where we will be checking in on the government’s progress on its pledge to “get Britain building” and Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s ambition “to give more people a safe, secure and affordable place to live”.
The government has got off to a swift start. An independent Task Force led by Sir Michael Lyons has been appointed and tasked with recommending locations for new communities of at least 10,000 new homes within 12 months.
To speed up planning, get homes built more quickly and help stimulate the economic growth the country needs, 11 changes are currently proposed to the National Planning Policy Framework. The consultation process on the reforms has now ended, with the government due to respond to the consultation by the end of 2024.
A raft of financial measures designed to support the government’s housing target were introduced in the Autumn Budget. These include an additional £500m for the Affordable Homes Programme budget, bringing it to £3.1bn. The Chancellor also allocated £3bn of support to SME housebuilders and confirmed the government will reduce Right to Buy discounts and allow councils to be able to retain the full receipts from sales to be reinvested into new supply.
The measures introduced in the Autumn Budget have been welcomed by the industry as a step in the right direction – but only a step. As Melanie Leech, chief executive of the British Property Federation, told Property Week, “Much more is needed if the government is to deliver on its 1.5 million homes pledge. The housing strategy needs to be much bolder and go much further.”
The government have set themselves a huge challenge in tackling the housing crisis.
To learn more about policy changes, planned developments and industry sentiments, from pledges to progress, join us at our Building New Communities Conference (formerly Building Garden Communities). Early bird delegate passes are available here.
