In thinking through any gnarly planning challenge or strategy we always try and put ourselves in the position of the decision maker. Gavin Barwell, (the Minister for Housing and Planning and Minister for London) is a key strategic planning decision maker and my goodness does he have a lot on his plate.
Top of his agenda is the housing crisis. Now we all know about the housing crisis and its effect on the day to day life of Londoners but does the government really have a grasp on really what needs to be done to sort it out?
The recently published report by the National Audit Office (NAO) entitled ‘Disposal of public land for new homes: a progress report: would indicate otherwise and highlights the disconnect between the political rhetoric and the progress made in reality. Some of the statistics are as astonishing as they are disappointing:
- The government t has set themselves a target to provide enough public sector land to build 160,000 homes by March 2020.
- The programme started in May 2015, so we are currently 16 months after the starting gun.
- As of March 2016, land with the capacity for 8,600 homes was sold. This is 5% of the target and 16% into the programme.
- At the current rate of progress land for only circa 45,000 homes would be delivered by March 2020. A circa 115,000 homes shortfall.
- During the process that identified land for the first tranche of 8,600 homes, the government departments found enough land for a further 104,000 homes but over 50% of this land is considered to be high risk with the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) suggesting that is “has not yet obtained sufficient evidence that the sites will be developed for housing”
So if the NAO progress report was a school report for housing studies judging the boys and girls on their progress in the first year it would probably have to be grade E and you cannot reasonably conclude that the government are doing anything at all to solve the housing crisis on the basis of their own evidence. The lack of progress so far is especially disappointing when you remember that the disposal of land is just one part of the massive housing crisis jigsaw and doesn’t even begin to address the ‘let’s get them built’ challenges downstream.
Still on the plus side, Iceni have been thinking deeply about these challenges for some time and we have an exciting and scalable housing proposition supported by our clients, institutional investors and construction specialists. We just need the land. Watch this space.