VIDEO | How do we supercharge sustainable housing delivery?

There is a lot of work to be done if there is any hope of achieving the government’s goal to build 1.5m homes over the next five years. Property professionals from the public and private sector gathered in Liverpool to debate the best way forward in this roundtable discussion hosted by Onward Homes.

You can hear our panellists’ main takeaways from the conversation in the video at the top of this article.

Participants

• Nicola Butterworth, corporate director of neighbourhoods and housing at Liverpool City Council
• Tracy Gordon, lead officer for housing partnerships at Liverpool City Region Combined Authority
• Catherine Holmes, assistant director for markets, partners, and places at Homes England
• Simon Humphreys, director of regeneration and place at Starship Group
• Sandy Livingstone, executive director of property at Onward Homes
• Victoria Millward, director at Paddock Johnson
• Darren Muir, planning director at Pegasus Group
• Tahreen Shad, partnerships director at Lovell Partnerships
• Chaired by Julia Hatmaker, editor of Place North West

Key talking points

When it comes to delivering much-needed housing there are three issues that come up again and again: planning, viability, and skills.

Those around the table agreed that tackling those three aspects was crucial to achieving the “supercharge” goal.

Regarding planning, the consensus was that the system needs to be simplified. It also needs to become more considered, with officers and councillors weighing and assessing applications rather than using a tickbox method. A scheme that may not deliver on sustainability desires, for instance, may have merit because of what it would do in terms of housing numbers.

“Compromise shouldn’t been seen as a dirty word,” said Pegasus Group planning director Darren Muir.

The group advocated for developers and housebuilders to keep their focus on those who will ultimately be living in these future homes – rather than just zeroing in on the number they can deliver.

When it comes to delivery, SMEs were discussed as the key since they can deliver housing faster than larger organisations due to the scale of their projects.

That being said, SME housebuilders face the same viability issues as bigger companies. It was pointed out that they also have access to public funds for support – but they need to be more proactive in reaching out to the public sector for help sooner than they have been in the past.

Regarding viability, the group noted a broader shift in public sector funding from grants to loans. This is becoming the new normal and developers need to adjust accordingly.

It was noted though that the public sector has a vital role in helping underwrite risk. “Pump-prime”, while described as a “dinosaur term” by some around the table was agreed to be an accurate way of describing the public sector’s role in pushing delivery forward.

This can also mean aiding in larger sustainability initiatives such as heat networks.

Modern methods of construction also has a role to play here, participants agreed, due to its ability to build quickly and sustainably.

When discussing the skills gap, those around the table agreed this was an all-hands-on-deck issue. Everyone needs to get on board, from national organisations like the Royal Institute of British Architects to government to smaller companies. Skills investment needs to also be used to target future needs, rather than past problems.

For more from this roundtable discussion, you can simply watch the video at the top of this article or on the Place North YouTube channel.  Learn more about Onward by visiting onward.co.uk.