Author: Alex Toal

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The Government has a plan to build 1.5m homes – but what is the plan to heat them?

At time of writing the reformed National Planning Policy Framework has been published making clear Labour’s intention to move full steam ahead to get as many homes built as possible. As Ed Miliband likes to say, the Government needs to “move fast and build things”. The Government has been equally ambitious on the energy side; GB Energy, the National Wealth Fund, and lifting the ban on onshore wind are all hugely welcome steps. It is clear that ambition is not something holding the Government back.

However there is a glaring gap in the middle of this Venn diagram and that is the decarbonisation of heating. According to the Energy Systems Catapult, heating makes up nearly 40% of the UK’s emissions and gas heating is the greatest cause of skyrocketing energy as gas prices increased by 11 times between 2019 and 2022 – responsible for 96% of the increase in energy bills, according to Carbon Brief. If we want to lower energy bills and meet our climate targets, we need to move towards decarbonised heating systems.

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Despite this challenge there unfortunately seems to be a gap in the Government’s policy work. GB Energy is the Government’s flagship energy policy, but the Chair Jürgen Maier has indicated the state-owned company will only be a “power generator”, seemingly excluding the provision of low carbon heat. The 2024 manifesto only mentioned low carbon heating twice, as opposed to 19 mentions of power (in the energy sense). The £3.4bn committed towards the Warm Homes Plan in the Autumn Budget is absolutely a welcome step but only a fraction of that money will go directly to the installation of decarbonised heating systems. The Government has committed to clean power by 2030, but no such commitment exists for decarbonising heat. The Government is also yet to commit to the previous Government’s targets such as 600,000 heat pump installations and a phaseout of fossil fuel boilers.

We have seen through the debate on the winter fuel allowance payment that heating is an emotive and politically salient issue. Heat decarbonisation is not only important from a climate angle, but from a social justice angle as well. The heating sector has considerable union density across the industry, particularly through GMB-represented gas engineers. Making clear investments in heat decarbonisation now is the best way to protect those workers, by sending a signal to industry that they need to invest in the heat workforce – not in five or ten years – but now. These do not necessarily have to be sole traders operating out the back of vans, as technology like heat networks allow a proper site with real progression for those operating in the heating sector. Even better, growing heat decarbonisation technologies like geothermal offer a clear off-ramp with transferable skills for gas workers.

Clear policy support for decarbonised heating is good for the housebuilding sector as well: a stronger clean heat industry will mean more installers being hired, more heat networks being developed and more R&D funding going into building decarbonisation. By supporting the decarbonised heating sector, the Government can deliver brilliant outcomes for people around the country who desperately need a warm, green and secure home.

If we seize the heat decarbonisation challenge, we can, simply put, kill two birds with one stone. By mandating low-carbon heat network connections for properties where it is appropriate, commit to a phaseout of fossil fuel heating and investing in the clean heat workforce now, the Government can get ahead of the upcoming building blitz. The alternative is having to go back and do it all over again after these properties are built, with dire consequences for growth, workers, and the climate.

This Government is capable of being ambitious, we have seen it in housing, and we have seen it in clean power. Now we need to see the same level of ambition devoted to keeping us warm.

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Kemi Badenoch’s shift right bodes ill for housing

Kemi Badenoch MP (North West Essex, Conservative) by House of Commons is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The 2024 general election saw the worst result for the Conservative Party in terms of share of seats and votes since its formation in the nineteenth century.

But the Conservatives’ failure should not preclude their return. Only three Conservative leaders have failed to become prime minister, and some recent polls have already put them ahead of Labour. Even a minor swing could put them back in power, with Kemi Badenoch as prime minister.

Badenoch served as Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government between the election and her victory in the Conservative leadership contest, and so we know more about her housing positions than other aspects of her views. And her approach so far demonstrates a worrying drift to the right.

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Shifting right on renters’ reform

One of the biggest disappointments of the last Government was a failure to pass the Renters’ Reform Bill. In ending Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions and bringing in new standards to the private rented sector, the legislation would have been life-changing for millions of private renters.

While Badenoch served in administrations which introduced this legislation, she quickly pivoted after the election to oppose Labour’s Renters’ Rights Bill, which is very similar to the Conservatives’ Bill.

Speaking at the Bill’s Second Reading, she parroted the talking points of landlord lobby groups that the bill would reduce the availability of homes in the private rental sector, while failing to discuss where those homes would go.

This potential tilt away from renters’ rights was further reinforced by Badenoch’s pick for Shadow Housing Minister: Kevin Hollinrake. Hollinrake was founder and chair of Hunters’ estate agents until 2021, and was reported to have numbered among the opponents of his own government’s Renters’ Reform Bill in 2023.

Shifting right on housing delivery

Can building homes be left or right wing? Seemingly under Kemi Badenoch it can be, as housing has become part of her wider ideological conflict with the left.

This has manifested in her blaming left wing administrations in urban centres and the bureaucratic ‘deep state’ for a failure to build the homes we need.

The former continues a long-standing trend of Conservatives trying to disproportionately focus construction in urban areas.

This is for a brazenly political reason: Conservatives have long abandoned metropolitan voters and are happy to concentrate in these areas the disruption caused by building more homes. Accordingly, in 2021 they introduced a somewhat arbitrary 35% “urban uplift” to the 20 most densely populated towns and cities outside of London, and, in 2024 Michael Gove launched a review of Sadiq Khan’s London Plan as a way to criticise the mayor for failing to deliver enough homes.

Badenoch has also continued this tradition, attacking Khan on a similar basis in three of her eight speeches as Shadow Housing Minister.

Similarly, while Badenoch has made pleas to protect the green belt, she has simultaneously started to champion a deregulatory planning policy with measures to “roll back the environmental laws, the diversity and social requirements”, blaming the bureaucratic state for the failures to build more homes.

This is a disappointing hallmark of the Conservatives’ housing policy. While the party failed to meet their own housing targets, before ditching them entirely to appease ‘NIMBY’ backbenchers, their only real solution for the lack of delivery in urban areas has been, and continues to be under Badenoch, to blame local leaders.

Shifting right on migration

A further worrying trend of Badenoch’s tenure as Shadow Housing Minister has been a shift to blame migration for the increase in rent levels, stating that “The only way to improve the lives of [private renters] is to control immigration and build more homes, particularly in high-demand areas like Inner London.”

This is not a far cry from Reform UK’s dishonest blaming migrants for the lack of social housing. Unlike Reform’s argument, which is based purely on falsehood, there is some truth to the idea that any new entrants into the private rental sector will increase demand, whatever their country of origin.

However, this is only part of the picture. Migrants already have significant barriers to renting privately, including language barriers, difficulty finding guarantors, and Right to Rent checks, and so landlords when surveyed admit that they are less likely to rent to someone without a British passport. As a 2017 briefing from the House of Commons Library states:

“Research suggests that new migrants often enter the PRS in areas of low demand, filling less desirable property left by individuals moving into better housing. This may be because some groups of migrants only have access to low-paid or insecure work, but it also reflects variations in perceptions of standards and personal priorities.”

As John Perry notes, this also means that foreign nationals are more likely to live in sub-standard accommodation, the regulation of which Badenoch strongly opposes.

While Badenoch is still new in position, the direction of her housing policy so far demonstrates a concerning shift to the right, with renters, migrants and the environment thrown under the bus. This divisive rhetoric is simply a distillation of the arguments made by the Conservatives in government, and a worrying sign that Badenoch has learned little from the lessons of the past.

More in this series:

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Green populism will not solve the housing crisis

Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay, co-leaders of the Green Party, with Elllie Chowns, Housing and communities spokesperson. Image by Bristol Green Party licensed under public domain

One notable moment from the 2024 general election was the surprise success of the Green Party. The party more than doubled their vote to 6.7 percent, with four MPs. This followed a string of successful local election results, which has brought the party a total of 813 councillors.

The party also came in second place in 40 seats in 2024, up from just three in 2019, and they are within a five point swing of an additional five MPs.

For a long time, the political world has treated the Greens as a curiosity with interesting but ‘out there’ ideas. But, as the party’s electoral strength builds, it is worth taking a serious look at their policy offer.

This is particularly important in the housing sector, where their proposals rely on a mix of populist myth-peddling and blunt tools to address one of the most complex crises facing the country.

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What do the Greens stand for?

On housing, the Green Party Manifesto in 2024 had four main priorities:

  • A Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter with new regulations for housebuilding
  • Investing into decarbonising housing
  • Delivering 150,000 social homes per year through purchasing existing homes and building new ones, including ending the Right to Buy
  • Regulating the private rental sector by allowing local authorities to introduce rent controls, ending ‘no fault’ evictions and introducing private residential tenancy boards to resolve disputes

Many of these policies are sensible, and several are being implemented by the Labour Government, including investment into housing decarbonisation, restricting the Right to Buy, and ending Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions. But the sum of these policies, alongside the Green Party’s actions outside of their manifesto, presents a worrying package which could have unintended consequences.

Stymying delivery

One notable moment of the election campaign was the refusal by the Greens’ co-leader, Carla Denyer, to support a housing target, despite being pressed on this three times by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

This is particularly problematic given that many of the Green Party’s policies would make housing delivery harder. The Party’s ‘Right Homes etc… Charter’ includes making councils spread development over small sites, which would eliminate economies of scale by larger development. Likewise, a mandate of Passivhaus Standard on all new homes in this charter would put substantial additional costs on construction with few measurable benefits to the Future Homes Standard currently being introduced by the Government.

Government policy should, of course, promote higher regulations and help smaller builders to create a more diverse industry. But mandating these high bars is a blunt tool for a complex problem.

Similarly, while academics argue the definition and the merits of rent controls, it is relatively well-established that the sort of direct control on rent levels suggested by the Greens has a negative impact on housing supply.  

Combined with the well-publicised history of Green councillors and MPs opposing new housing in their area, this amounts to a concerted effort to stymy housing supply.

This was also shown in the one recent occasion of sustained Green Party control over a local authority when they led Brighton from 2011 – 2015. Data from the Housing Delivery Test show that, in the aftermath of this control, Brighton only managed to deliver 77% of the homes it needed in 2015 – 2018, well below the 130% average of local authorities nationally. Meanwhile, data from 2019 – 2022, after four years of Labour control, shows the council delivering 130% of the homes required by the Delivery Test.

While many on the left may not be concerned with overall housing delivery, since these are mostly market rate homes from private developers, building these homes is crucial. Not only will this have a positive impact on rent levels, but it will result in more social housing being built, since Section 106 contributions from developers are responsible for delivering nearly half of all affordable and social housing. More private homes is, for now at least, key to more social homes. 

Focusing on housing myths

Meanwhile, the Greens have often peddled myths and mistruths in order to avoid focusing on real solutions.

The party’s response to Labour’s announced planning reforms was a perfect encapsulation of this, as the Greens’ Co-leader, Adrian Ramsey, claimed that:

  • There were a million empty homes, only a quarter of these are actually long-term empty
  • There were a million homes with planning permission that developers were refusing to build while not a straight debunk, a report by the Competition and Markets Authority showed, while developers do engage in a degree of ‘land banking’, this is largely due to uncertainty of a steady supply of homes, a symptom of our broken planning system which Labour seeks to reform.
  • That developers intentionally build over-large ‘executive homes’ the average newbuild home is in fact 20% smaller than its counterpart from the 1950s.

Similarly, the Greens’ manifesto included a completely redundant pledge on making developers pay for local infrastructure, which they already do through Section 106.

This was also reflected in Denyer’s answer when quizzed in the aforementioned Laura Kenssberg, where she said:

“The problem is that in so many parts of the country what we’re seeing being built is not what people need. For example what we see are large, out-of-town developments of luxury, executive homes, 4, 5, 6 bed, double garage, and yet no bus service, no doctors or dentists, no more school places. And to be honest they’re not affordable to most of the people living in the area.”

That a key part of a national political party’s housing messaging contains such blatant myths is worrying, and an irresponsible injection into the political discourse.

The allure of populism

But why focus on these areas, rather than have a discussion about the solutions needed?

In part, it may be because the Greens know that their policy platform is not yet one for national government, and so is more of a political document. Rather than providing solutions, it is instead a powerful tool to point fingers and identify ‘baddies’ that their voters can rally against.

This is exactly what its manifesto seeks to do. By advocating for rent controls, impractical or redundant development standards, and action on empty homes, it implies that all of the faults of the housing crisis are down to its ‘villains’, greedy landlords, overseas buyers and corner-cutting developers, and that regulating their activity is all that is needed to fix it.

Opposition allows minor parties the luxury of an incoherent policy platform, but the Greens’ success merits them being taken more seriously. And by playing such obvious political games, they are taking their voters for fools.

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Reform UK cannot win the argument on housing and migration

Nigel Farage MP (Clacton, Reform UK) by House of Commons is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

One of the surprises of the 2024 general election was Reform UK’s first real success at a Westminster election. Few would have guessed that Nigel Farage would be finally elected after seven attempts at Parliament, fewer that he would be joined by four Reform UK colleagues. Even more notable is that they came second in 98 (mostly Labour) constituencies, with 13 within a five percentage point swing.

Whether we like it or not, beating a currently minor party with little record or accountability will be a crucial part of securing the next Labour win at the general election. We have to take on the far right.

When it comes to housing this is particularly important, as Reform UK’s platform is as divisive as it is ineffective. So, what is Reform UK’s platform and why should it worry us?

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What does Reform UK stand for on housing?

Reform’s housing policy is relatively detailed, including:

  • ‘Loose fit planning’ policy for large developments, alongside brownfield passports to fast-track housing on urban land.
  • A “UK Connection test” for social housing so that “foreign nationals must go to the back of the queue. Not the front.”
  • Abolishing Section 24, which limits the amount of tax relief landlords can get on their residential properties.
  • Abolish the (then) Renters’ Reform Bill.
  • Minor reforms to leasehold to provide more clarity over charging and reduce the cost of renewing leases.
  • Modernise innovative construction practices.

Migration is not the problem

Key to Reform UK’s housing policies, and broader argument, is the myth that migrants take up an unfair share of UK social housing.

Since their election, several of Reform UK MPs have submitted questions regarding how many asylum seekers are being housed in social housing in their constituencies, only to be corrected by the Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook that asylum seekers are ineligible for social housing due to having no recourse to public funds.

This is an oft-touted myth on the far right, that all social housing is allocated more favourably towards non British nationals. This has been debunked in a number of ways:

  • Currently 90% of social housing residents are UK nationals, the same as their makeup of the national population.
  • 17% of people born in the UK live in social housing, compared to 18% of people not born in the UK.
  • Even if you want to take Reform UK’s bait of ‘non UK nationals’ meaning people outside of the ‘White British’ ethnicity classification, this is also untrue. The social housing survey shows that White British people are actually more likely to be in social housing than other ethnicities, comprising 77.6% of new tenures compared to 74.4% of the population.

This myth needs to be called out for what it is – a divisive attempt to create a bogeyman to justify the positions of Farage and his colleagues.

Caving in to vested interests

While claiming to stand up for the ‘little guy’ with this allocations policy, the rest of Reform UK’s platform is a clear pandering to those all benefitting from the housing crisis.

This is something which Reform UK is proud of, with Reform candidate David McLennan  saying during the election campaign “We’re very much a landlords’ party”. This is true in more than one sense, with former Deputy Leader Ben Habib CEO of First Property Group and current Deputy Leader and MP Richard Tice still listed as a Partner at Quidnet Capital, a real-estate focused investment group.

Meanwhile, their tax policy heavily favours those with already substantial funds, including eliminating stamp duty for properties below £750,000 (over twice the national average), raising the Inheritance Tax threshold fourfold to £2m, and abolishing Section 24.

Not only would this benefit landowners in general, but specifically landlords. This has been backed up by the party’s opposition to the Renters’ Rights Bill, which eliminates Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions while keeping a number of routes for landlords to evict unruly tenants, and implements basic standards of accountability to the sector.

Finally, while the party may have a fig leaf to increasing home-building, the actions of Reform MPs have clearly shown a pandering to their most NIMBY instincts. This has manifested in a number of written questions to Ministers including about:

A charlatan’s charter

It is clear from their policy platform that Reform UK have no serious plan to solve the housing crisis. Instead, their policy is based on clear disinformation, that migration is to blame for the UK’s housing shortage and that a pure deregulatory agenda will fix it.

Instead, they represent at best a lobby group for those whose interests lie in keeping the housing crisis unsolved, seeking to milk the housing crisis for all that it’s worth while failing to come up with any real solutions.

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The Autumn Budget: What is in it for housing?

The Chancellor visits Liverpool by HM Treasury is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Today was a first in a number of ways. It marked the first Labour budget in fourteen years, and the first budget ever delivered by a female Chancellor.

But it is also the most ambitious set of measures for the housing sector in quite some time, with a number of policies contained designed to get Britain building, deliver the next generation of social housing, and address some of the stark inequalities in the housing system as a whole.

Investing in delivery

The past few years have seen a slump in affordable housebuilding, particularly in the areas of highest need, with the number of homes started by London-based housing associations down by 92% this year. This is due to a number of reasons, including the increased cost of building, and also a focus on the sector’s existing stock after the passage of much-needed regulation including Awaab’s Law and the Building Safety Act.

It was therefore pleasing to see that one of the headline announcements from the Budget was a £500m top-up to the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP). This was a programme started under the last Government to deliver £11.5bn of funding to the affordable housing sector from 2021 – 26.

The additional £500m represents a 10% per annum increase in the value of the fund from 2025-6, which will be particularly useful given the aforementioned pressures on registered providers, and should hopefully allow them to top-up existing project funding as well as starting new ventures.  This funding is also boosted by the confirmation of a five-year rent settlement for social housing providers, under which their rents will be able to increase by CPI +1%. This will provide much needed certainty to the sector after years of more haphazard policymaking.

What’s more, this budget saw additional funding dedicated towards more general housing delivery, including:

  • £3bn in support and guarantees to increase the supply of homes and support small housebuilders.
  • £128m to new housing projects to support the deliver of 33,000 homes
  • A £36m investment in the planning system to boost local authority skills provision, including recruiting the 300 new planners promised in Labour’s manifesto.
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Bringing existing homes up to date

The UK famously has among the oldest and leakiest housing stock in Europe. This is consequential for a number of reasons: consumers’ bills are higher, buildings emit more carbon, and homes are worse for residents’ health.

This budget saw a clear effort to address that, with a £3.4 billion investment into the government’s new Warm Homes Programme as part of the Government’s mission to bring all homes up to EPC C by 2030.

This programme will be transformational for consumers. It will significantly reduce bills and with it emissions from the built environment, and much of the retrofitting work entailed will have knock-on benefits for resident’s health.  

Particularly welcoming was the £1bn dedicated to cladding remediation – this has been called for by those trapped in unsafe blocks and will meaningfully accelerate the removal of dangerous cladding.

Severely restricting the Right to Buy

The Right to Buy, the policy which enables council tenants to buy their homes at a discounted rate, has often been criticised as an unhelpful drain on social housing at the time when lists of people applying for social housing are at their highest. Since discounts were increased by the coalition in 2012, this scheme has accelerated to seeing 10,000 – 12,000 homes lost per year, which are often difficult to replace.

After a review over the summer, this budget saw the government confirm their intention to heavily reduce discounts for the Right to Buy scheme, alongside increasing the time period for a which a tenant has had to live in, and providing additional exemptions for newly built council homes.

This not only undoes some of the worst reforms made under the Coalition Government but places brand new restrictions on the Right to Buy, and so there is hope that sales may dip even below the rates of 4,000 – 5,000 seen in the latter years of the Blair-Brown Governments.

It has also been confirmed that councils will keep 100% of the receipts from sales, making it easier for them to build new homes to supplement those lost from the scheme.

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Taxing housing more fairly

Finally, the budget sought to change the perverse incentives which help to drive inequality in the housing market. At present, many landlords buy up property in the private rental sector as an investment, and happily admit to seeing themselves more as investors than as professional landlords. Similarly, those who are at the lucky enough to own their own homes are able to pass a substantial amount of the value of that home to their children upon death, dividing Britain starkly between those with family property and those without.

This budget saw moves to amend this inequality, with stamp duty rates for second home and capital gains tax increased, while income tax thresholds will be unfrozen from 2028. This marks a substantial change in the tax system to prioritise those seeking to get onto the housing ladder at the expense of those who earn more than property, either as a property owner or as a landlord, while supporting those who derive income from work.

Welcome progress, but more funding will be needed

All of the money delivered in this budget is welcome, and sorely needed. But more will still be needed to achieve the government’s housing goals.

The National Housing Federation has estimated that £4.6bn per year will be needed to deliver the step change in affordable housing needed to meet Labour’s manifesto goals, nearly double of the programme inherited from the Tories.

More investment is also always welcome in directly preventing and tackling homelessness, and in reviving the Supporting People Programme ended by the Tories, but which was estimated to generate £2 for every £1 spent in supporting social housing residents.

Ministers have indicated that this is only the start of Labour’s plans to drive investment in the economy, and we will have to look to the Spending Review taking place over the winter for signals of what departmental budgets will look like in the coming years. Key priorities will be ensuring that the Local Housing Allowance and housing benefit continue to be uprated so that those at the sharpest end of the housing crisis have the support they need.

But the sector must continue to call for these changes and the spending needed to support the government’s aim of ending the housing crisis.

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How social landlords can support residents and reduce health inequalities

A great deal of the conversation in housing policy often rightly revolves around how we build and maintain the homes we need.

But for many social housing providers, getting residents into new homes is just the start of the journey. In 2024, this has proven to be the case more than ever. With the acute shortage of social housing meaning that those who are able to make it off tortuous waiting lists and into secure tenancies are more likely to be in a vulnerable position and require active wellbeing support from their landlord.

I spoke with Connie Jennings, Director of Stronger Communities at whg, a social landlord based primarily in Walsall with homes across the Midlands, about what social landlords can do to directly address issues of resident health outcomes. She portrayed a challenging landscape for many of those who find themselves in need of social housing.

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Over half of social housing residents in England live in the 30% most deprived neighbourhoods and healthy life expectancy for people living in these communities is almost 20 years shorter than the UK average. They are more likely to be underserved by existing healthcare infrastructure, due to carriers such as transport or language , and are increasingly likely to be disenfranchised by moves to digitise healthcare provision. This can lead to an increasing number of social housing residents going straight to A&E because they find it harder to book GP appointments.

In response to this, whg is deploying targeted, evidence-based and person-centred approaches. In Connie’s experience, “working with housing is the best way to connect with  to this group of people”. She presented the issue of diabetes, which disproportionately impacts Walsall’s South Asian population, some of whom live in whg properties. Local healthcare providers previously attempted to reach local communities to get them to engage with diabetes services through traditional means, such as putting leaflets through doors, but this had a minimal impact. So whg recruited a number of “Community  Champions’ from among their residents with relevant cultural experience and language skills to engage with their neighbours and spread awareness and connect residents with diabetes healthcare services.  .

As Connie pointed out, “The system expects those with the least to jump through the most hoops to get to the services most of us take for granted”. Landlords like whg can help residents to jump through such hoops, such as providing more elderly residents with digital inclusion courses so that they can be in touch with their relatives over Zoom.

Key to whg’s success in this area, in Connie’s mind, is the housing association’s place-based nature, with a large number of  whg properties being in the Walsall area. This has allowed them to build up a relationship with the integrated care partnership and to sit on the local NHS Partnership Board. Rather than investing in multiple contacts across multiple councils, whg is able to focus most of its attention in this single local area.

One issue in many local authorities is a lack of joined-up working between departments within councils, and between local authorities and housing associations, GPs, or schools in their area. This leaves residents having to deal with a range of contacts in the public sector, or in another case one service finding it hard to reach a resident who may be in regular contact with another part of the state. whg aims to reduce this complexity, for instance all of their Wellbeing Schemes for people aged 55+ have  a dedicated Wellbeing Officer on site to support residents. I asked Connie how whg were able to dedicate funding towards this when that many housing associations are facing tighter budgets due to increased costs from building safety or decarbonisation work. Connie attributed this in part due to whg’s long-term organisational culture which prioritises customer wellbeing in the same way they prioritise building safety and carbon reduction, with ring-fenced funding in the organisation’s 2030 plan to carry on this work.

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Thinking about more than just an organisation’s bottom line also has more beneficial long-term financial consequences. Interventions to improve a resident’s mental health could generate a social value of £36,000. And Connie pointed to the work of whg’s employment and training team, which has helped 180 residents to work in local NHS hospitals and healthcare teams, addressing a local skills shortage while providing stable work for the residents. In 2023/4, whg generated a social value of £46.4m through a range of actions such as building new homes, helping residents into employment, and providing money advice to households, in turn helping customers to successfully sustain their tenancies and remain in their home .

I asked Connie what the new Labour Government could do to support the work of individuals like her. She pointed to the Supporting People Programme, ring-fenced funding provided to local authorities to help individuals with additional needs to live independently. Subsequent value-for-money analysis commissioned by the then Department for Communities and Local Government showed that the programme had produced benefits totalling £3.41bn per annum against an overall investment of £1.61bn. Looking ahead to the Autumn Budget, Connie noted, “we’ve got to be able to demonstrate the worth of a social housing tenancy. It shouldn’t be a safety net, it should be a trampoline.”

For all of us in the housing sector, it is crucial not just to champion the value of new homes, but that of secure tenancies with responsible landlords who can help to empower residents to take advantage of new opportunities.

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Labour Conference 2024: What’s going on for housing?

ACC Liverpool by John Lord is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Labour Conference is back! The first conference with a Labour Government in 15 years will see Liverpool teeming with Labour Party activists, VIPs and the broader political world.

Hundreds of events look to be forming out a packed-out calendar, so this editor thought it would be useful for Red Brick readers attending conference to have a quick guide of what’s going on for housing.

This will be split into events, exhibition, and conference floor, with notes for when and where events are happening.

Only confirmed speakers will be registered here, given the number of organisations who include over-ambitious invitations.

Please note that some events may require booking to enter, we recommend that you also check with the event organiser in advance.

If you would like your event included in this list or would like to make an amendment please get in touch with us at [email protected]

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Hall speeches and debates:

Sunday 22nd September:

11:25am – 11:35am | Deputy Leader of the Labour Party’s Speech

Tuesday 24th September:

2:00pm – 4:00pm | Leader of the Labour Party’s Speech

Fringes:

Sunday 22nd September

11:30am – 12:30pm | Meeting Room 12, ACC | Finding Local Solutions to the Housing Crisis (The Labour Party) Join a panel of local government leaders to discuss how Labour Councils can support the Government’s target to build 1.5 million homes.

3:00pm – 4:00pm | Progressive Britain Hub, ACC | “Getting Planning Right: How can we get Britain building and promote nature’s recovery?” (Progressive Britain, CPRE, National Trust, RSPB and the Woodland Trust) Is it possible to deliver growth through the planning system and tackle the nature crisis? Or are the two mutually exclusive?

Speakers:

  • Baroness Sharon Taylor
  • Mary-Ann Ochota (Broadcaster, author and anthropologist)
  • Abi Bunker (Woodland Trust)
  • Craig Bennett (The Wildlife Trusts)
  • Rob Boughton (Thakeham)
  • Marc Harris (Labour YIMBY)

3:15pm – 4:30pm | Meeting Room 4B, ACC | Delivering the homes the country needs (NHBC) A housing event with industry CEOs, senior stakeholders and Party members.

3:30pm – 4:30pm | Arena Room 8, ACC | How can Labour fix the renting crisis? (Renters’ Reform Coalition).

Speakers:

  • Tom Darling, Renters’ Reform Coalition (Chair)
  • Vicky Spratt (The i paper)
  • Anny Cullum (ACORN)
  • Tom McInnes (Citizens Advice)

3:30pm – 4:30pm | Arena Room 10, ACC | How can Labour work with communities to end rough sleeping? (Christians on the left).

Speakers:

  • Bonnie Williams (Housing Justice)
  • Cllr George Dunstall (Haringey Council)

4:00pm – 5:00pm | Premier Inn Liverpool Albert Dock | Warming up? Electrifying home heating (Bright Blue and Thermal Storage UK). Join Bright Blue and Thermal Storage UK as we discuss the technologies for and challenge to the electrification of home heating. Speakers:

  • Ryan Shorthouse (Bright Blue) (Chair)
  • Fiona Harvey (The Guardian)
  • Guy Newey (Energy Systems Catapult)
  • Dr Robert Barthope (University of Sheffield).

4:15pm – 5:30pm | Mersey Suite, Pullman Hotel | Brick by brick: a plan to deliver the social homes we need (Shelter).

4:30pm – 5:30pm | Startup Coalition Tech Hub | Built different: accelerating the decarbonisation of the built environment through tech and innovation (Startup Coalition and Checkatrade). A panel discussion on how the Labour Government can deploy technology to accelerate its Warm Homes Plan, decarbonise the housing stock and empower consumers to lower their energy bills.

4:30pm – 6:00pm | Albert Johnston suite, Novotel Liverpool Centre | Rally for Social Housing (Labour Housing Group)

Speakers:

  • Paula Barker MP
  • Rachel Blake MP
  • David Smith MP
  • Peter Swallow MP
  • Andrew Lewin MP
  • Jenny Riddell- Carpenter MP
  • Luke Murphy MP
  • Ike Mbamali (Prowgress)
  • Mairi MacRae (Shelter)
  • Martin Hilditch (Inside Housing Build Social)
  • Cllr Julie Fadden (Liverpool City Council)
  • Cllr Peray Ahmet (Haringey Council)
  • Mark Slater (Greater Manchester Tenants’ Union)
  • Gordon Johnstone (House Everyone in Liverpool Properly)
  • Jasmine Basran (Crisis)

6:00pm – 7:00pm | Meeting Room 9, Leonardo’s Hotel | Health Inequality and Cold Homes: An evening with Professor Sir Michael Marmot (Friends of the Earth and Institute of Health Equity).

Speakers:

  • Mike Childs (Friends of the Earth) (Chair)
  • Professor Sir Michael Marmot (Institute of Health Equity)

6:00pm – 6:30pm | Arena Room 7, ACC | More than a landlord: How can housing associations help tackle the housing crisis? (SME4Labour and Clarion Housing Association).

Speakers:

  • Clare Miller (Clarion Housing Group)

6:30pm – 8:00pm | Arena Room 9, ACC | Social housing into the next century (West Midlands Housing Association Partnership)

7:00pm – 9:00pm | Imagine, Hilton Hotel | Labour YIMBY: Rally for the Builders (Labour YIMBY and Homes for Britain supported by Britain Remade and LPDF).

Speakers:

  • Cllr Shama Tatler (London Borough of Brent) (Chair)
  • Shreya Nandy (Labour YIMBY)
  • Marc Harris (Labour YIMBY)
  • Chris Curtis MP
  • Dan Tomlinson MP
  • Yuan Yang MP
  • Eve McQuillan (LPDF)
  • Issy Waite (Labour Students)
  • Abdi Duale (Labour NEC)

7:30pm – 9:00pm | The Purpose Coalition Tent, ACC | The Warmer Homes Reception (The Purpose Coalition and E.ON). The Warmer Homes Reception will explore how the new Labour government and business can work in partnership to ensure everyone has the energy security they need.

Monday 23rd September

9:00am – 10:00am | Meeting Room 9, Leonardo Hotel | Where does the Private Rented Sector fit into Labour’s plans for Housing? (Social Market Foundation and Paragon). Labour have made commitments to help tenants in the private rented sector by banning no fault evictions, but what more can be done to raise standards and deliver more homes to address the supply-demand imbalance?

Speakers:

  • Jamie Gollings (Social Market Foundation) (Chair)
  • Nigel Terrington (Paragon Banking Group)
  • Vicky Spratt (The i paper)
  • Gráinne Gilmore (Cluttons)

9:30am – 10:30am | Gallery 2, RIBA North, 21 Mann Island | Delivering high-quality affordable homes? (Royal Institute of British Architects and Peabody). Join RIBA and Peabody alongside an expert panel to discuss how the new Labour government can both build new affordable homes at scale and also deliver good quality homes and sustainable places.

10:00am – 11:00am | Arena Room 7, ACC | Boosting the UK’s Small House Builders (SME4Labour and Federation of Master Builders).

Speakers:

  • Brian Perry (Federation of Master Builders)
  • Sonia Khan MP

11:00am – 11:45am | Meeting Room 11B, ACC | Homes for All: How could Labour support a broad and balanced curriculum? (New Statesman and Nationwide Foundation)

Speakers:

  • Richard Parker (Mayor for the West Midlands)
  • David Orr (Homes for All)
  • Kate Markey (Nationwide Foundation)

12:00pm – 12:50pm | Meeting Room 11B, ACC | How can Labour shape the future of UK housing?

Speakers:

  • Matthew Pennycook MP
  • Meg Hillier MP
  • Satvir Kaur MP
  • David Orr (Homes for All)
  • Kate Markey (Nationwide)
  • Jon Bernstein

12:00pm – 12:45pm | Meeting Room 11C, ACC | How can Labour end the housing crisis? (New Statesman and G15)

Speakers:

  • Fiona Fletcher Smith (G15)

12:30pm – 1:30pm | Meeting Room 10, ACC | Ending blanket bans on pets in privately rented homes: where next? (Mars Petcare and Battersea Dogs and Cats Home)  

Speakers:

  • Lorna Cattling (Mars Petcare)
  • Peter Laurie (Battersea Dogs and Cats Homes)
  • Misa von Tunzelman (Lendlease)

12:30pm – 2:00pm | Grace Suite 3, Hilton Hotel | Impact of Temporary Accommodation on Children (Shared Health Foundation). There are over 145,000 children experiencing homelessness in Temporary Accommodation. Can this government improve conditions for the country’s most vulnerable children and end child homelessness?

Speakers:

  • Siobhain McDonagh MP

12:30pm – 1:30pm | Meeting Room 12, ACC | Labour’s Housing Mission: Delivering Development in Partnership (Planning Futures and Vistry Group).

Speakers:

  • Cian Bryan (Planning Futures) (Chair)
  • Lindsey Richards (RTPI)
  • Andrew Taylor (Vistry Group)
  • Mark Washer (SNG)

12:30pm – 2:00pm | Arena Room 3, ACC | What role can housing associations play in delivering the biggest increase in affordable and social housing in a generation? (National Housing Federation in partnership with Karbon Homes and Guinness Homes).

Speakers:

  • Kate Henderson (NHF)
  • Catriona Simons (Guinness Homes)
  • Charlotte Carpenter (Karbon Homes)

1:00pm – 3:00pm | Princess Suite 3, Crowne Plaza | The Housing Revolution and Devolution: Building 1.5 Million Homes for England (English Labour Network)

Join us at Princess Suite 3 at the Crowne Plaza – Liverpool City Centre for a groundbreaking event on revolutionising housebuilding in England and the implications for devolution in England! We’re bringing together experts, policymakers, and innovators to discuss building 1.5 million homes to address the housing crisis.

Speakers:

  • Brenda Dacres (Mayor of Lewisham)
  • John Denham (former Communities Secretary and English Labour Network Director)
  • Cllr Vince Maple (Medway Council)
  • Graeme Craig (Places for London)
  • Cllr Anthony Okereke (Greenwich Council)
  • Kevin Henson (Gerald Eve)
  • Cllr Shama Tatler (London Borough of Brent)
  • Siddo Dywer (Concilio)
  • Catherine Rose (Concilio)

1:30pm – 2:30pm | Arena Room 10, ACC | What will Labour’s planning reforms mean for workers? (Britain Remade)

Speakers:

  • Sam Richards (Britain Remade)

2:30pm – 3:30pm | Maritime Museum, 4th Floor | The Future for Housing (Fabian Society and Hallam Land management).

Speakers:

  • Matthew Pennycook MP
  • Nick Duckworth (Hallam Land Management)
  • Cllr Sara Hyde (London Borough of Islington)

3:00pm – 4:00pm | 2nd floor, Atlantic Pavilion, Royal Albert Dock | Housing as a driver for growth (Chartered Institute of Housing). Hear from some of the leading voices in housing as we explore the sector’s crucial role in driving inclusive growth.

Speakers:

  • James Prestwich (Chartered Institute of Housing)

3:50pm – 4:50pm | Museum of Liverpool | Getting back to building: a new era for housing delivery (Reform Think Tank and TPXimpact). Government’s plan to get Britain building cannot be driven from Westminster. This panel will explore creating new integrated planning and delivery approaches subnational levels and partnering with businesses and communities to build the housing we need.

Speakers:

  • Dr Simon Kaye (Reform Think Tank)
  • Tracy Brabin (Mayor of West Yorkshire)
  • Peter Foster (Financial Times)
  • Stephen Webb (TPXimpact)

4:00pm – 5:30pm | Liverpool, ACC | Funding homes for social rent: a role for institutional capital: drinks reception (Prowgress)

Speakers:

  • Ike Mbamali (Prowgress)
  • Krista D’Alessandro (Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association)
  • Simon Century (Legal & General Capital)
  • Anthony Breach (Centre for Cities)
  • Cllr Vanisha Solanki (London Borough of Redbridge)

4:30pm – 6:00pm | Arena Room 3, ACC | A fair deal for all new home buyers (New Homes Quality Board). How do we ensure the proposed 1.5 million new homes to be built doesn’t come at the expense of quality?

4:30pm – 5:30pm | The Purpose Coalition Tent, ACC | Later life is for living: how can more homes for our ageing population benefit us all? (The Purpose Coalition and Anchor Hanover). With an estimated need for 50,000 homes for older people to be built each year, increasing supply can help us live independently for longer and free up family-sized homes for younger generations.

4.30pm – 5.30pm | Grace suite 2, Hilton Hotel | Turning houses into homes: a social with serious content (Labour Housing Group). How do we make sure that house and flats provide real homes for the occupants, ones with stability, comfort, affordability, and healthy environments?

Speakers:

  • Rachel Blake MP (chair)
  • Claire Donovan, End Furniture Poverty
  • John Glenton. Riverside Housing

5:00pm – 6:00pm | RIBA Office, RIBA North | How the built environment can deliver regional growth (CIOB, RIBA, RICS and RTPI). This reception provides MPs with an opportunity to find out about the crucial role the built environment plays in reaching net zero, creating vibrant communities and delivering regional growth.

6:00pm – 7:30pm | King’s Suite, Radisson Blu Hotel | Housing Equality: Creating a Housing System That Works For Everyone (Labour Housing Group)

Speakers:

  • Cllr Shreya Nanda (Social Market Foundation) (Chair)
  • Ben Twomey, Generation Rent
  • David Bridson, YMCA
  • Jack Shaw, Labour Housing Group
  • John Greaves, Places for People

6:00pm – 6:50pm | Arent Room 7, ACC | Unlocking Growth in South-East England (SME4Labour, Kanda Consulting)|

Speakers:

  • Jo Dancy (Kanda Consulting) (Chair)
  • Kevin Bonavia MP
  • Cllr Peter Marland (Milton Keynes Council)

7:00pm – 8:00pm | Arena Room 7, ACC | The new Labour Government: unlocking the homes London needs (Kanda Consulting, Royal Haulage Association and SME4Labour).

Speakers:

  • Ibrahim Dogus (SME4Labour) (Chair)
  • Karen Alcock (Kanda Consulting)
  • Tom Copley (GLA)
  • Cllr Shama Tatler (London Borough of Brent)
  • Graeme Craig (Places for London)

7:30pm – 8:30pm | Arena Room 5, ACC | Better Vision for Temporary Accommodation: Policy Launch (Justlife) . The event will discuss policy changes, shaped by the homelessness sector and people with lived experience, we believe would help build a future where experiences in TA are short, safe and healthy.

Tuesday 24th September

8:30am – 10:00am | Skills Hub, ACC | The Big Construction Debate (CECA, CPA, ACE, FMB, BMF). The environment in which we live and work is at a turning point. With ambitious housing targets to meet, a looming net zero deadline and a pressing need to develop the next generation of builders, how will we deliver a sustainable tomorrow?

9:00am – 9:45am | Meeting Room 11C, ACC | How Can a Labour Government Tackle the Housing Crisis and Get Britain Building Again? (New Statesman and Natwest Group).

10:30am – 12:00pm | Arena Room 10, ACC | Keeping Britain Warm While Saving Cash and Carbon: Delivering on Labour’s Net Zero Goals in the Home (Labour Climate and Environment Forum, EDF). How can a Labour government deliver on its net zero goals and ensure that people in the UK have affordable access to making their homes safe and warm?

Speakers:

  • Megan Corton Scott (LCEF)
  • Miatta Fanbulleh MP
  • Kieron Williams (Southwark Council)
  • Adam Scorer (National Energy Action)
  • Clare Moriarty (Citizens Advice)
  • Richard Hughes (EDF)

10:30am – 12:00pm | Meeting Room 4A, ACC |Sustainable Housing Forum: Creating Affordable Homes and Reducing Fuel Poverty (Thakeham). Labour is promising to deliver the biggest boost to affordable housing in a generation. Join the conversation on the holistic approach to affordable housing creation, fuel poverty reduction, and community building.

12:30pm – 1:30pm | Meeting Room 11A, ACC | The Road to Building 1.5m Homes (Labour Housing Group).

Speakers:

  • Cllr John Cotton (Birmingham City Council) (Chair)
  • Kate Henderson (National Housing Federation)
  • Mark Powell (EDAROTH)
  • Paul Brocklehurst (Land, Planning and Development Federation)
  • Dominic Armstrong, Community Union

1:00pm – 2:00pm | Meeting Room 4, Premier Meetings Liverpool Albert Dock | Will Labour’s Plans to Unlock the Planning System Really “Get Britain Building”? (City & Country)

Speakers:

  • Liz Hamson (BE News)
  • Chris Vince MP
  • Josh Dean MP
  • Michael Shanks MP

2:30pm – 4:00pm | Albert 3, Hilton Hotel | Citizen Panels: the YIMBY answer to better consultation? – Policy Launch and Drinks Reception (LGH Fabians & Leeds Building Society)

Speakers:

  • Chris Worrall (LGH Fabians) (Chair)
  • Cllr Shama Tatler (London Borough of Brent)
  • Tim Leunig (Public First)
  • Richard Fearon (Leeds Building Society)
  • Gemma Gallant (Iceni Projects)

3:00pm – 4:00pm | Meeting Room 4, Albert Dock Premier Inn | How Labour can solve the housing crisis in a sustainable way (Structural Timber Association)

Speakers:

  • Jon Craig, Chief Political Correspondent, Sky News (Chair)
  • Naushabah Khan MP, Member of Parliament for Gillingham and Rainham
  • Mike Reader MP, Member of Parliament for Northampton South
  • Andrew Carpenter, Chief Executive Officer, Structural Timber Association
  • Branwen Evans, Group Director, Sustainability and Policy, Places for People

3:30pm – 4:15pm | Meeting Room 11C, ACC | Getting Onto the Property Ladder: How Could a Labour Government Support First Time Buyers? (New Statesman and Santander)

3:30pm – 4:30pm | Progressive Britain Hub, ACC | Reigniting the Homeownership Dream: Listening to the Voice of First Time Buyers (Progressive Britain and Moneybox). Join us for a dynamic event with Moneybox, home of the largest community of aspiring first time buyers in the UK, as they launch their Voice of First Time Buyers White Paper, sharing findings and insights from the report and discussing policy recommendations for the Labour government.

4:00pm – 5:00pm | Arena Room 6, ACC | How Can the Government Make Sure It Delivers the Houses Britain Needs? (Institute for Government & Thakeham).

Speakers:

  • Nehal Davison (Institute for Government) (Chair)
  • Rob Boughton (Thakeham)
  • Sophie Metcalfe (Institute for Government)
  • Dan Tomlinson MP

5:00pm – 6:00pm | Progressive Britain Hub, ACC | A New Generation of Social Housing? (Progressive Britain, Inside Housing and JRF). Labour will build 1.5m new homes this Parliament. How does it make sure those least able to afford a home have access to one, and can build a foundation for a better life. Join Matthew Pennycook MP, Housing Minister and other panellists to discuss. Wine, beer and soft drinks available

Speakers:

  • Matthew Pennycook MP
  • Darren Baxter (JRF)
  • Bronwen Rapley (Homes for the North)
  • Kieron Williams (Southwark Council)
  • Kath Swindells (Inside Housing)

Exhibition:

ECL Building:

B11: The Property Institute

The Property Institute (TPI) is the professional body for residential property managers in Britain, facilitating safer managed property communities. It actively supports its members to continually improve building management standards through OFQUAL-accredited professional qualifications, ongoing professional development and auditing of firms, and it is calling for regulation of property agents to ensure people’s homes are managed competently, safely, and ethically.

C7: Crisis

Crisis is the national charity for people facing homelessness. By working together, we can build a future free from homelessness. Visit us to understand homelessness in your area and the solutions needed so that everyone has a home, including more about our work with our partners Lloyds Banking Group.

C20: IKEA and Shelter

IKEA and housing and homelessness charity, Shelter, have formed a long-term partnership to defend the one thing we value most: home. Together, our aim is to ensure that by 2030, half a million people have access to a better life at home, by building 90,000 new social homes a year.

D2: Retirement Housing Group

The Retirement Housing Group is a membership body representing organisations providing all types of retirement housing. Established in 1995, it is the only body of its type. Retirement housing provides a solution for older people looking for more assistance. However, numerous restraints mean the UK does not build enough housing suitable for its ageing population. The RHG aims to improve affordable housing choices for the growing number of older people.

G5: Propertymark

Propertymark is the UK’s leading professional body for property agents. We campaign to raise standards for consumers who are renting, buying and selling property as well as amongst professionals working in the sector. Visit us to discuss and learn about the reforms needed to solve the housing crisis.

G20: Wates

As the UK’s leading family-owned development, building and property maintenance company, we have a proud legacy in the built environment. We know that the places where we live, work and play influence every aspect of our lives. In 2024, we entered our 127th year of business. Over the decades we have developed and maintained the resilience to survive and grow despite the many economic and geopolitical challenges we have ffaced. In the face of today’s environmental and social pressures, we know the built environment must do more. It can help unlock people’s potential, improve health and wellbeing, and shape future prospects. We are driven by our purpose of reimagining places for people to thrive.

ACC Building

AC10: Homelesslink

AC20 Thakeham

Thakeham, a sustainable placemaker, focuses on biodiversity and zero carbon hoes by 2025. Their homes include solar panels, heat pumps, EV chargers, and rainwater harvesting. Thakeham leads in UK community creation, integrating schools, healthcare, sports, and community-run amenities, emphasising community well-being and a sense of belonging.

Categories
Blog Post

The housing election that wasn’t

2024 General Election in Kingston upon Hull East Holderness Road Methodist Church Doors by Hulian 11 is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

With a few exceptions, the period of 22 May to 4 July 2024 was possibly the most predictable election in recent history. After six weeks of campaigning, debates and gaffes, nothing really changed. There was no breakout moment, no shifting of the debate, and no risk that the result would be anything other than a Labour landslide.

For housing campaigners, the lack of debate around the housing crisis will stand out as a missed opportunity. Before the election, housing advocates excitedly pointed to the increased salience of housing in polling, and its prominence in Labour’s 5 missions. But it hardly featured in the air war, the debates, or major policy announcements.

We can now look with hope to a Labour government poised to boost housing supply, improve quality of existing stock and reform problematic tenures like leasehold and private rent. But we should also ask: why was housing so absent from the election campaign; does this matter; and how can campaigners ensure that it is at the heart of the political discussion?

Multi-party consensus

Many pundits (including this one) pointed to housing as a dividing line at this election. The Conservatives had poignant housing failures around the Renters’ Reform Bill’s collapse and housing targets. Meanwhile, housing was at the centre of Labour’s policy offer, with the pledge to build 1.5 million homes, reform the private rental sector, and improve quality.

But the parties’ manifestos showed a relative consensus on housing policy. All agreed that housing supply needed to be sped up, with a focus on brownfield regeneration. All agreed on introducing some planning reform, with popular-sounding buzzwords to soften its potential risk. All agreed that reform of the private sector was needed. And all agreed that there was room for more social housing in the mix.

Meanwhile, more radical provisions such as rent regulation, ending the Right to Buy, or rebalancing the existing home ownership model, were off the table, meaning that there was little room for scare tactics.

What few dividing lines existed were either technical or risky. The Conservatives laid out their “cast-iron commitment to protect the Green Belt”, and while this was raised on the occasional front page it was never a fight which Labour sought. And few are qualified to, for instance, authoritatively debate the differences between Labour and the Conservatives’ leasehold policies.

The tightrope to a majority

One thing that has become clear since the election is how close things were in so many seats. While Labour’s majority is historic, it is built on precarious electoral foundations.

In housing terms, this was a tactical sacrifice of tens of thousands of votes in urban, renter-heavy seats, in exchange for those of suburban or rural, predominantly homeowner votes.

More so than in 2019 Labour’s electoral coalition contains a mix of those who are at the sharpest end of the housing crisis, and those who might worry that they would lose out from the change that is needed to solve it.

The parliamentary majority won at this election will make enacting this change easier, but making this a dividing line would have risked that majority. Labour’s ‘Ming vase’ strategy has successfully delivered dozens of MPs in previously safe Conservative seats like Hitchin and Gloucester, and talking more about planning reform or private rental reform might have lost a fair number of MPs who can now champion a wide range of progressive causes, including in housing.

This was particularly difficult in the tax-and-spend debate. So much of the election debate concerned the risk of future taxation from a Labour government, and so, while investing in skills, quality improvements, and unlocking developments may well ‘pay for themselves’ in the long run, any discussion of the amounts of spending involved would have led to further concerns of how to pay for this.

Linking the issues

Issues like the cost-of-living crisis and the state of the economy have been at the top of the political agenda at this election, but advocates failed to effectively link this to the high cost and low quality of housing.

In part, this is a symptom of the multiple crises going on in housing at the same time. The private renter locked out of home ownership and the historic resident of a dilapidated social housing block are suffering from different, albeit linked, policy failures.  

During a an election campaign, it was easier to speak of how delivering GB Energy could result in cheaper and greener power, than to explain to voters how reforming a tenure they weren’t living in, or building homes they couldn’t afford, would benefit their lives.

The real campaign is just starting

Does it matter that this was not a ‘housing election’? High salience debates often lead to polarising and extreme answers, particularly in two-party systems like the UK. And in housing, where so much is decided by the markets and private business, such populist answers can be particularly dangerous.

Whatever the state of the debate, Labour comes into office with a mandate to enact transformational change. Already planning reform is being mentioned as a priority for the first 100 days, and much more may follow soon.  

Now is the time of lowest risk and greatest opportunity. Debates about the scale of the solutions needed to end the various housing crises can be had without the risk of being turned into an attack line. And new MPs are more aware than ever of how tight their majorities are and the need to deliver for their constituents.

The task of advocates is now to drive the discussion with the hundreds of new MPs, many of whom care deeply about the housing crisis. Campaigners need to get better at demonstrating that the root causes of the housing crises, particularly the overall housing shortage, affect everyone regardless of tenure or security.   

By showing how certain reforms will help new MPs’ constituents, particularly those in marginal seats, campaigners can build a coalition for change in between elections.

This election may not have been a turning point in the debate. But, for housing advocates, the real campaign has just begun.

Categories
Blog Post

“But what will Labour do differently?”

Keir Starmer speaks at USDAW Conference, Blackpool, United Kingdom - 29 April 2024 by Keir Starmer is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED

The general election is well underway. Across the country, thousands of Labour activists are speaking with voters and making the case for them to put their trust in us.

By all indicators, Britain is sick of fourteen years of Conservative failure. Only 15% of voters are satisfied with the government, and only 16% with Rishi Sunak’s record.

But we cannot take for granted the millions of voters intending to vote Labour, and need to reach out to the millions still who have not made up their minds. The need to make the case for a Labour government is greater than ever.

Voters may be sick of the Conservatives, but will still ask that crucial question: “what will Labour do differently?”

Housing is one of the sharpest dividing lines of this election. As the housing crisis intensifies it has risen up the list of voters’ priorities. It is an area where the Conservatives have most evidently failed, and where Labour has a clear plan.

Labour’s manifesto may well drop soon- this usually happens three weeks before an election. But, until then, how do we answer this question from voters?

Delivering the homes we need

Since the Second World War, the UK has failed to build 4.3 million homes compared to the average European country. Campaigns across the political spectrum recognise the need to build at least 300,000 a year to meet this backlog.

The Conservatives promised this at the last election, but repeatedly failed to deliver. They dropped a promised reform of the planning system to get Britain building, and scrapped their own housing target to appease their own backbenchers.

Meanwhile, a decade of austerity has hollowed out council planning departments, preventing them from making local plans to let communities have a say in what homes are built where. By accelerating the Right to Buy they sold off 113,000 council homes, while the number of households in temporary accommodation has soared to over 100,000.

Labour has a plan to undo these mistakes. With a sizeable majority, Labour will have the ability to reform the planning system to get Britian building, prioritising brownfield land to deliver 1.5 million homes over the next Parliament. By also reforming planning and slowing down the Right to Buy, Labour plans to deliver the biggest boost to affordable housing in a generation.

This won’t just be a builders’ charter either. By recruiting 300 extra local planners, Labour will empower local communities to take back control of their local areas and have a say over what is built where. And Labour will ensure that Section 106 agreements by developers are met, so that essential schools, roads, and GP surgeries are delivered alongside the homes we need.

Key to this will be a fresh generation of New Towns, built with mandated principles behind them, of 40% affordable and social homes, community infrastructure, transport links, and beautiful design.

By delivering the homes the country needs, Labour will put in the cornerstone to tackling the housing crisis.

Ending exploitation in the private rental sector and leasehold

The housing shortage has enabled bad actors in the private rental sector to abuse their power. While rents skyrocket, tenants are forced into overcrowded, poor-quality accommodation, often with the threat of eviction if they ask for even the slightest improvements.

The Conservatives came to power with a crystal-clear commitment to strengthen renters’ rights, and even introduced legislation in 2021 to do so. But the chaos of three prime ministers and sixhousing ministers, and the opposition of a hardcore lobby of landlord MPs have obstructed progress, and so Rishi Sunak failed to get this bill passed into law.

Not only will Labour strengthen protections for renters, but they will go further to ensure that they have the stability they deserve. A Labour government will end Section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions, ensure that reported hazards in private rented homes are investigated within 14 days, and outlaw rental bidding wars.

Similarly, the Conservatives promised to reform the feudal practice of leasehold, to protect leaseholders from exploitative service charges and unfair practice. But, once again, this was watered down. A Labour government will pick up their mess by implementing the thorough recommendations for reform presented by the Law Commission.

Better and warmer homes

The UK has some of the oldest housing stock and least energy efficient homes in Europe. As a result, residents pay more for less, with higher energy bills, colder homes, and health risks from damp and mould, while heating our buildings also comprises 14% of our carbon emissions.  

Improving the quality of our homes will improve lives, tackle climate change and make the UK less reliant on oil-rich dictators like Vladimir Putin.

But Rishi Sunak has failed to take the necessary steps to improve home quality. Not only did he scrap the UK’s Energy Efficiency Taskforce as a political stunt, but his Great British Insulation Scheme, designed to insulate 300,000 homes by 2026, has so far only helped 7,720 households.  

Labour has a clear plan to improve home quality for the millions impacted by our poor-quality stock. A Labour government will introduce a ‘Decent Homes Standard 2’ for the private rental sector, after the first iteration by the Blair government improved lives for millions of renters. Meanwhile, a Warm Homes Plan will insulate 5 million homes by 2030, bringing them up to a minimum EPC C rating.

Reasons for hope

Fourteen years of Conservative housing failure have left the whole country footing the bill. But a Labour government with the energy and passion for change can put a stop to this. The party has a clear plan to deliver the homes we need, improve the ones we have, and protect from exploitation those at the sharpest end of the housing crisis.

“What will Labour do differently?” In housing, a hell of a lot.   

Categories
Blog Post

Planning for 1.5m homes: What are Labour’s Options for Reform?

Key to Labour’s policy offer is a pledge to build 1.5 million homes during the next parliament. Doing so would be transformative, lowering costs, creating tens of thousands of new jobs, and funding the creation of a new generation of affordable and social houses. 

Increasing housebuilding is easier said than done. Despite a similar target of 300,000 homes a year, the current government is well short of this. Only 232,800 homes were delivered last year, and a downturn is expected as the country’s economic situation worsens. 

Reforming the planning system will be a key plank of achieving this goal, after being identified as the most substantial barrier to delivering new homes in a survey by the Federation of Master Builders. This will not be easy, however, given how complicated the planning system is. 

The problems with the planning system go well beyond the obstacles it presents to building new homes, and it rarely incentivises building high-quality dwellings well-resourced by local infrastructure and amenities. But, in order to achieve its goal of 1.5 million homes, a future Labour government will need to find priority areas to alter in ways which maximise impact while reducing controversy.

Reducing the Burden

The planning system is burdensome for everyone involved. While debate often focuses on the onus on housebuilders, any document filled in by a developer also has to be read by a planning officer, councillors, and locals keen to have an input into developments in their area. 

This is in part due to regulations being duplicated, between national and local requirements, and within the same local authority. There will be a degree of overlap, for instance, between a tree survey, arboriculture impact assessment, and biodiversity survey. But some councils ask developers for all three. 

This can also be due to regulation being in the planning system inappropriately, regardless of how noble its intensions are. For instance, it is currently impossible to build homes in areas with particularly high nutrient pollution – even though new housing contributes to less than 1% of said pollution. 

A root and branch review of the planning system, ensuring that regulations are not duplicated are in the right place, would reduce the burden for everybody involved in planning and speed up the pipeline of new homes.

Standardising Requirements

Similarly, the complexity of the planning map is an obstacle to building new homes. England contains 391 local planning authorities, ranging from Rutland and its 41,381 residents to Birmingham, the largest local authority in Europe. 

Each of these areas will then have subtle differences in regulations required. These can be seen in the ‘planning validation checklist’, a list of planning documents local planning that authorities are required to publish. Research conducted by the Housing Forum has shown that many authorities lack an up-to-date checklist, and of those that did, the number of documents required to build as few as 10 homes could range from 24 to 42. 

Simplifying and standardising requirements between local authorities, and even considering more radical steps like transferring planning powers to county or combined authorities, would reduce local variation, without reducing the quality of regulation.

Supporting Planners

Delays in the planning system are in part caused by capacity issues in local authorities. Only one in ten local authorities have fully staffed planning departments, with 70% reporting difficulties recruiting new planners. This is fuelled by pay disparity between public and private sectors, difficult backlogs, and online abuse – as a result a quarter of planners have left the public sector in the last ten years. 

It is in part due to this that one in five local authorities still lack an up-to-date local plan. 

Reversing this decline in the public sector would speed up the delivery of planning applications, improve the institutional expertise within the planning system, and help local authorities and developers to work together more effectively to deliver locally appropriate schemes.

Repositioning Democratic Input

Much as excessive paperwork makes navigating the planning system difficult for everyone involved, so too does the nature of democratic input frustrate both those seeking to build new homes, and residents looking to have an impact on their local community. 

Currently, locals get most involved in commenting on individual planning applications, which will already have been drawn up in partnership with a developer and a local authority. The fact that 90 percent of planning applications in the UK are approved points to the fact that most of these are a finalised and detailed product. Thus local input is often perfunctory and ineffective, and many can feel that they have little voice in the process. 

Similarly, developers often express concern that plans can either be delayed or cancelled outright by a particularly vocal local campaign, and councillors can often feel pressured by a vocal minority of residents who often little as small as 1 – 3 percent of a local population 

Meanwhile, as Labour’s Planning Commission (2019) notes, engaging at an earlier stage, when councils draw up their local plans, “often made plan making unapproachable and sometimes intimidating for residents”. After all, residents are seldom planners, architects, or contractors: but they contain valuable knowledge about their local area which should be put to use in constructing local plans. 

Simplifying democratic input at the local plan making stage would make it easier for local people to get involved, for councils to focus attention to a single event, while empowering a greater range of voices.  

This is similar to the calls for a ‘zoning’ system, promoted by organisations such as the Centre for Cities. This would bring the UK in line with comparable democracies, by removing the discretionary nature of the planning system, where planning committees decide on individual applications. Instead land would be designated for a certain use, such as ‘housing’, ‘industry’, or ‘commercial use’, and a set of regulations then applied. Developments which followed these regulations would then be automatically approved. 

Countries like New Zealand, and individual cities like Austin in the US changed their planning systems from discretionary ones to zoning systems, and both saw an increase in housebuilding and a comparative decrease in house prices.  

While moving to such a system would require intensive legislation, moving community input upstream in the planning system could be a suitable stepping stone to simplify the democratic process while broadening it out to a wider audience. 

Reforming the planning system is far from an easy process, and successive governments have promised it and failed to deliver. But identifying achievable and high impact goals will be crucial for a future Labour government to speed up the delivery of homes and meet its 1.5 million home goal. 

This is the first part of a 4-part series in what a Labour government can do to meet its 1.5 million homes goal. Stay tuned for future instalments!

Alex Toal is Communications Executive at The Housing Forum, a cross-sector housing membership organisation representing local authorities, housing associations, contractors and a range of other housing sector organisations. Before joining THF, Alex worked at the Institute for Government and Make Votes Matter, and is a ward organiser for Cities of London and Westminster PPC Rachel Blake. Based in Haringey, Alex helps to run his local LGBTQ+ tennis group and volunteers at his local food bank.