An edited version of Ian Anderson’s article on Housing Delivery was published in the Evening Standard on Wednesday 21st August. The full version of the article is provided below:
“The Chancellor’s much derided Help to Buy scheme is a means to an end, but exposes underlying problems in our ability to deliver new homes expeditiously and cost-effectively. This failure is not a conspiracy by volume housebuilders – it’s in their interests to build and sell as many homes as possible. A contractor client of mine recently remarked how since the credit crunch, not only has the industry lost skilled labour, it has lost the production lines to deliver raw materials, pushing up the price of basic products. Another client lamented that the cost of paint required to complete an executive residence has increased since 2008 by 30 per cent. These pressures will be felt across the housing spectrum.
The heart of the problem is the continuing uncertainty created by the planning system, and the myth politicians allow to fester that we can build our way out of our housing crisis by relying on brownfield sites. In Inner London especially, these are the cherry on the cake – not the cake itself.
We need to show the ambition last seen directly after the Second World War. It is depressing that the Mayor has been able to openly promote a Thames Gateway airport but presumably considers it too politically incendiary to make a case for greenfield housing on the edge of London and in the hinterland of the South East.
Ultimately, there is only one answer, but I'm not expecting to see it written in a party manifesto any time soon.