Social Housing overview
SOCIAL HOUSING – WHAT’S THAT? THIS IS NOT A FRIVOLOUS QUESTION BECAUSE A SIMPLE TRAWL THROUGH THE LEADING BUILDING INDUSTRY MAGAZINES WILL THESE DAYS FIND VERY LITTLE REFERENCE TO SOCIAL HOUSING. OF COURSE, THERE IS MASSIVE COVERAGE OF ARCHITECT REDUNDANCIES, HOW HOUSING CONTRACTORS AND DEVELOPERS ARE SQUEALING AT THEIR PROBLEMS, PROFITS ARE DOWN AND GLOOM IS UP. SADLY, WE MUST ASSUME THAT SOCIAL HOUSING IS OF LEAST CONCERN TO THE PEOPLE FOR WHOM HOUSING (THAT’S THE LOW QUALITY, BADLY DESIGNED, HIGH PRICED SECTOR) HAS BEEN THE CASH COW FOR FAR TOO LONG.
There are still massive social problems because housebuilders have responded to the fall in demand from private buyers by selling more homes to social landlords – eg 46% of homes built in December were sold in this way compared with 18% a year ago. There are problems countrywide. For example, residents of a luxury housing scheme in Hampshire are considering suing their developer after it sold 20 units to social landlords. The residents say they were told the development would include 15% affordable housing when they bought their homes but the reality is between 30% and 50%. They complain the price of their homes, credit crunch apart, has plummeted because they are now living on a ‘glorified council estate’.
Two different directions?
Social housing begs a number of important questions. What exactly is its purpose? Which products are needed? How should housing associations be accountable and to whom? How should regulations work? The purpose of examining these fundamentals is` to stimulate debate and influence the government to be bold when it contemplates the future direction for housing policy.
One direction was identified by us (Specification Magazine) in the last Public Sector supplement when spotlighting Adelaide Wharf as a rather good housing scheme in East London’s Hackney. Interestingly, it has just won Housing Project of the Year in Building Magazine’s recent plethora of Awards. Significantly, it came in 20% under time and 20% under budget due to efficient construction technologies.
Housing Associations have attempted to meet the demand for building low-cost housing by using surplus funds generated by private sales to supplement government grants. However, their position has become more perilous with the economic downturn, leading to calls for greater government intervention and even a return to the intensive council house building programmes of the past. That is the dangerous and quite opposite direction to take.
Action or inaction?
Fortunately, things are happening behind the scenes. For example, it’s great news this month that both the HCA and CABE, have teamed up to pledge their joint commitment to drive up the design quality of new homes, following the publication of the first national design survey of new affordable housing in England (some of which are featured here).
Apparently, the findings of the Affordable Housing Survey give mixed results. Based on the assessment of 218 schemes they show nearly two thirds (61 per cent) to be ‘average’, with 18 per cent of schemes either ‘good’ or ‘very good’. A fifth of schemes (21 per cent) were assessed as ‘poor’. Some aspects of the schemes were frequently strong; these included architectural quality, the quality of the surrounding public realm and the tenure and accommodation mix.
Many schemes also outperformed statutory minimum criteria, such as building regulations. The survey assessed the whole place, not only the buildings, and found other aspects of some schemes to be weak. These included a lack of distinctiveness and having a design that does not respond to its context. Some schemes were difficult to navigate around or had limited access to local amenities. Around 20 per cent of schemes were marked down as a result of these issues.The HCA will continue to promote high standards of quality in all the housing it funds, and to raise aspirations so that the rest are as good as the best.
There are 1.7 million households on council waiting lists for rented accommodation and the national average house price is increasingly out of reach for many. Apparently, there are no robust plans to tackle the chronic shortage of affordable housing across the UK at a time when we are still only building one home for every two households that are being formed. The number of households on social housing waiting lists in England has increased by more than 70% since 1997 and it is estimated there will be five million people on the waiting lists by 2010.
The HCA is responsible for the delivery of nearly all of England’s affordable homes. It is investing £8.4 billion between 2008 and 2011 with their development partners – housing associations and private sector developers – to fund at least 180,000 new affordable homes. By 2010-11 the ambition is to see a building rate of 70,000 homes per year, with at least 45,000 for social rent and 25,000 for affordable sale. All new build affordable homes will have to meet the HCA’s quality and design standards, including environmental sustainability levels and minimum room sizes in excess of those in the private sector. Crucially however, the HCA wil also invest heavily in the Decent Homes Standard, designed to greatly improve nearly four million existing housing association and local authority homes.
Refurbishing empty properties (estimated at 700,000) to bring them back into use as affordable housing is an idea. However, it is often more expensive to refurbish an existing home, especially to the high standard the public sector expects, than it is to build a new one – and that is before any capital costs to buy the homes in the first place is added to the equation. The consensus is that new build schemes might be preferable because there is a bigger knock-on effect for the wider sector – housebuilders, architects, contractors – in terms of order books, jobs and continued capacity to build.
Watch this space!