As many commentators had predicted, a concerted lobbying campaign by many local authorities and members of parliament has led to the first signs of a softening of the government’s wider reform of the planning system. It seems that ministers are firmly in listening mode, as they are starting with a review of perhaps one of the most controversial aspects of the reforms – the revised housing targets for each individual planning authority.
The “housing algorithm issue” has tended to dominate the broader debate about the proposals, but it is only one of a wider series of concerns that ministers need to consider when assessing what further amendments they need to make.
Our greatest policy concern is the issue of First Homes and the potential effect that focusing on homes created by this policy would have on the delivery of other affordable housing. In high-value areas, such as inner London, even at discounts approaching 50%, they will remain out of reach for most of those for whom they are intended. Furthermore, prioritising them over other forms of affordable tenure will result in a loss of social rented and other genuinely affordable homes, which are required to meet London’s housing need.
Our response is not one of outright opposition to the policy, as it offers a viable way to expand homeownership opportunities in many parts of the country. However, the policy is unworkable in very high-value areas due to affordability, so we suggest a potential exemption from the policy in these areas.
That exemption should be based on an “affordability lock” – First Homes should be affordable to local median earners. This would effectively mean that they would not be the default affordable housing delivered unless, say, they were affordable to 80% of local household incomes and where it can therefore be shown that they meet local housing need.
If First Homes do not meet these criteria, the locality should be exempt from having to deliver them and should instead deliver other forms of tenure that are affordable to local median earners. This would cover the entirety of the inner London market, given the underlying high residential values.
In high-value areas such as inner London, shared ownership is already unaffordable and First Homes will have the same issue, while traditional social housing is in short supply and available only to those in acute housing need. In such locations, intermediate market rent should be the principal affordable housing tenure delivered to support median earners. These intermediate homes can provide a steppingstone into homeownership, low-cost or otherwise.
So, while it is clear that for the government the issues relating to their proposals are all about the numbers, we have to be equally clear that it is also about the type and tenure of the homes provided, not just how many and where.
Olivia Harris
Olivia has been appointed Chief Executive of Dolphin Living since April 2017. Previously, Olivia was Finance Director at Dolphin Living, providing financial and commercial oversight on a wide range of property and related projects, including debt and fund raising.
Olivia is a Chartered Accountant and has worked for more than 15 years in the property industry and is Chair of the Westminster Property Association.
As we start to look forward to the recovery, it is right that the government focuses on sustaining and creating jobs, especially within the key sectors of hospitality and tourism. Here the whole property industry has a critical role to play in supporting this agenda, especially through the increased provision of housing in inner London, which is both accessible and affordable, for not only those key workers who have been providing essential services during the current crisis, but crucially those working in the very sectors the government is actively seeking to support.
Although we are still very much in the response phase of the current COVID-19 crisis, significant attention is already being paid to the recovery phase, and the detailed plans to facilitate the gradual re-start of the UK’s economy. As well as recovery, there is also the longer-term lessons learned from the pandemic to ensure that the country is better equipped in the future to deal with any future public health crisis.
Whilst it is too early to draw firm conclusions and recommendations, both from an economic as well as a societal perspective, one obvious consideration is starting to emerge strongly. Namely, that we need to ensure that as a country we have a much greater resilience across key public sector roles, such as health and social care, and that we fundamentally review the definition of a ‘key worker’ to recognise those workers, often in relatively low-paid jobs, who keep the UK functioning.
Nowhere is this recognition more needed than in how we look to develop national, regional and local housing policies that seek to embed that resilience right at the heart of the communities where these workers are needed the most. Underlying this resilience is the need to house key workers in locations close to their work regardless of broader housing market pricing.
For many years Dolphin Living have championed, in a London context, the need for those workers who ‘keep the city alive’, and the need to increase the supply of key worker affordable housing in locations these workers want to live.
This reflects our primary charitable objective of providing homes in central London at below market rents that allows working Londoners on modest incomes to live close to their place of work. Our residents comprise not only those traditional key workers who have played such a crucial role during this crisis, such as health workers, the emergency services and teachers, but also those who play a key role in delivering and supporting London’s infrastructure over the longer-term.
Dolphin Living fundamentally believes that the need for housing for key workers in central locations has been evidenced by the coronavirus pandemic and the shift to new ways of working.
This crisis has forced us challenge many of the assumptions we have made about how our cities function. In particular we need to reconsider the notion that we can accommodate key workers on the fringes of London and beyond, yet still depend upon them in times of emergency to be available 24/7, often with little or no transport infrastructure to support them. This approach will surely result in a loss of key workers to central London as long commutes are even less desirable in light of the pandemic.
As a response we need to fundamentally review how we provide sustainable critical services alongside additional investment to support housing for keyworkers where they are most needed. The current issues relating to transport capacity considering social distancing disproportionately impact upon many of those we would define as key workers, who often cannot afford any alternative other than public transport and cannot work from home.
However, that is not to suggest that we should be seeking to deliver these new homes without some consideration around the locations and housing key workers actually want to live in. For it would be a mistake to look to re-create the police accommodation blocks of old without any notion of genuine and real choice for the key workers upon whom we all rely.
This notion of locational choice is something we have spent a considerable amount of time reviewing following polling we commissioned YouGov to undertake. Perhaps unsurprisingly we found that commuting time is a top priority for working London renters: 56% ranked the distance or travel time to work in their top three priorities, and over a quarter (27%) ranked this factor first. Similarly, 55% ranked having public transport available within ten minutes’ walk in their top three priorities, and a fifth (20%) ranked the factor first.
When we analysed the findings further we found that a clear majority (65%) of working London renters believe that an acceptable commute time is up to around 45 minutes, and nearly all (92%) think it should be no more than one hour.
Housing delivery in recent years has focused on those in the direst need both economically and socially, subsidised by market housing that in London is unaffordable to median earners. An unintended consequence of this approach, in high value areas particularly, means that little thought has been given to the needs and wants of the key workers upon whom we rely, as highlighted by this pandemic.
Therefore, we are asking that the government’s recovery strategy commits to a massive expansion of affordable house building, including a significant proportion of intermediate rental housing, within London as part of the overall pledge to support the capital’s economy.
Olivia Harris
Olivia was appointed as Chief Executive in April 2017. Previously, Olivia was Finance Director at Dolphin Living, providing financial and commercial oversight on a wide range of property and related projects, including debt and fund raising.
Olivia is a Chartered Accountant and has worked for more than 15 years in the property industry and is Chair of the Westminster Property Association.
