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How Labour can turn housing outputs into electoral outcomes

General Election campaigning, Hitchin, United Kingdom - 01 July 2024 by Keir Starmer is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

This was first published in the Young Fabians journal Anticipations

Anyone reading Red Brick is engaged enough in politics to know the extent of Labour’s housing achievements one year into government. Planning reform, shake-ups in private renting and leasehold, £39 billion into social housebuilding, Labour’s record has been impressive, and every stakeholder I speak with as Red Brick’s editor is blown away by the new Government’s progress.  

The crucial question for anyone in politics, however, is ‘so what’? Two critical factors impede Labour’s ability to turn housing success into political reward. The first is that the Government’s rhetoric is focused on outputs rather than outcomes. Even if Labour builds 1.5 million homes, turns around social housebuilding, and reforms problematic tenures, the price of buying and renting will continue to rise, even if this increase would have been lower had Labour not acted so boldly.

The second is that Labour is likely to miss its headline targets. Housebuilding runs in cycles of five years or longer, and even after a sprint of bold reforms, housing starts in the first quarter of 2025 were 9% lower than in 2024 due to a long tail of Tory failure.

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In this context, Labour needs to consider the right framework with which to talk about housing, to future-proof the likely missing of the 1.5 million homes goal and to create a cohesive narrative of its success in this key policy area.  

The first step of this is to consider how voters interact with the housing crisis. First of these is through the lens of cost, when asked about the most important housing issue facing Britain, 50% of voters picked the cost of renting, followed by 49% identifying the cost of buying (Leeds Building Society).  The other way is through the housing crisis’ visible impacts, most notably around homelessness and rough sleeping, with 46% of people thinking that homelessness is a significant issue in their local area (Centre for Homelessness Impact/Ipsos).

To address the first issue, Labour needs to pivot its discourse on tenure reform to a cost-of-living issue. For instance, while Labour campaigners frequently bring up ending Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions as the key measure in Renters’ Rights Bill, voters look even more favourably on limiting the number of rent increases per year (70% support) or enabling tenants to challenge rent increases (70%), than ending Section 21 (58%) (Ipsos).

At the same time, Labour needs to pivot its housebuilding narrative from talking about housing as a good in and of itself, to a laser focus in both policy and communications on the homes which will deliver the most social good.

An average voter may not connect a 3-bed newbuild with addressing rough sleeping, whereas it is easy to argue that a social home helps a long-term private renter, a prospective home buyer, as well as those with greatest housing need. While voters are supportive of new homes in general, they are even more enthusiastic about building when it is affordable, on brownfield sites, and in well-connected locations (YouGov/CPRE). Labour cannot only say that is building more homes, it also has to make a case about the value added by those homes.

‘Backing the builders not the blockers’, worked well at the last election. But, as the Government, Labour can credibly be viewed as the establishment, and needs to be careful about siding with unpopular vested interests. Only 24% of voters have a positive view of landlords (YouGov), and only 2% trust developers when it comes to large-scale housing applications (Grosvenor). Meanwhile, the public see developers as second only to the Tories’ in their responsibility for the housing crisis, with 63% viewing housebuilders as partially or largely responsible for causing the country’s housing issues (YouGov).

The Government recently won national headlines for fining developers for anti-competitive practices, showing how even moderate moves here can win broad acclaim. Reforms to enforce social housing requirements on ‘grey belt’ sites and diversify the housing industry by encouraging SME housebuilders can build on this narrative that Labour is taking on unpopular ‘vested interests’ in housing.

Meanwhile, across the aisle are the Conservatives, who failed to take action for 15 years, allowed costs to rise, and failed to act on poor behaviour on developers or landlords (many of the latter group making up their benches). And waiting in the wings is Reform UK, whose leadership is replete with property tycoons such as Nick Candy and Richard Tice. The contrast message could not be staring us any more clearly in the face.

One year into Government, and Labour’s laundry list of housing achievements is a mile long. But to reap electoral gain we need to rewrite this into the poetry of campaigning. Tackling costs and vested interests alike can and should be our mantra to show voters that Labour is on their side, that Labour represents a break from the past, and that our greatest electoral contenders would threaten this progress.

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Working together, government and the housing sector can build on our proud record of improving the quality of people’s homes

When it comes to improving people’s lives through better quality housing, the housing sector working in partnership with government has a record to be proud of. Since introducing the first Decent Homes Standard in 2000, more than three million homes have been improved to meet standards in decency, including more than one million social homes.

Between 2000 and 2023, the overall number of homes failing to meet these standards dropped by almost 50%.

In the social housing sector, the story is even better, with nearly three-quarters of non-decent homes having been brought up to standard – meaning that the proportion of poor housing has fallen from nearly four in ten homes, to one in ten. But there’s more to do.

At the Hyde Group, 99% of the homes we provide meet the current decent homes standard.

These improvements have ensured millions of people now live in safer, warmer, healthier and more comfortable homes.

However, expectations of what ‘decent’ means have, rightly, moved on since the Decent Homes Standard was last revised 19 years ago. We know that it no longer reflects the needs and lifestyles of our customers.

Labour’s five-point plan for a decade of renewal for social and affordable housing, sets out an ambitious new vision for the sector.

It rightly prioritises both the delivery of new homes and improving existing ones.

The upcoming regulatory changes affecting social housing are significant. Awaab’s Law, coming into force this October, will require landlords to investigate and fix emergency hazards within 24 hours, including electrical hazards, loss of water supply, and severe damp and mould that is having a material impact on a resident’s health.  

The updated Decent Homes Standard, which recently concluded consultation, proposes new expectations around energy efficiency, safety and overall decency, like the removal of age as a criterion for disrepair, requiring window restrictors and carpets and including kitchens and bathrooms as key components for achieving decency.

Some of these reforms are vital and some are not essential, such as carpets in every room. This needs sensible debate and amendment.

However, these reforms come at a significant cost, and we must be realistic about the pace at which we can deliver them without additional funding.

For the Hyde Group, we’ve estimated that complying with Awaab’s Law will cost an additional £2 million annually.

And meeting the new Decent Homes Standard will require more than £60 million.

For social housing providers these costs come on top of the record £8.8 billion spent on repairs and maintenance in 2023-24, driven by building safety costs, rising insurance premiums, and inflationary pressures.

At the same time, the resources we have to deliver for customers has fallen behind. Rents in the social housing sector are  15% lower in real terms than in 2015.

To achieve the change needed, housing associations need the government to pull all the financial levers at their disposal, chief among them is a rent settlement that includes a more generous rate of rent convergence.

That’s why step three of Labour’s plan, regulation, cannot be achieved without step two – rebuilding the sector’s capacity to borrow and invest. Rent convergence is central to this.

The Ggovernment has proposed to reintroduce rent convergence, which is extremely welcome. We think this modest increase, around £156 annually per affected household, strikes a balance between affordability for residents and the sector’s urgent need for investment.

Social housing remains significantly more affordable than the private sector. Our average social rent is £139 per week, and across the country, social rents are about 64% lower than market rents. But successive rent caps and cuts have left us far behind inflation.

At Hyde, 45% of our homes are currently below the rent level they should be at as a result of government intervention.

Getting this right is about ensuring every customer lives in a home that is safe, warm, and decent. It’s about giving housing associations the financial stability to deliver on Labour’s regulatory ambitions without sacrificing future supply or our wraparound services that support thriving communities.

In our panel session at Conference on Monday we’ll discuss how we can make Labour’s vision for a new Decent Homes Standard a reality.

At Hyde we’re proud of the work we’ve done to create more decent homes over the past two decades.

We stand ready to work with government again to make the new regulatory regime a success.

But to do this, we need rent convergence to help cover our operating costs.

If we want to drive up the quality of our social homes, we need government to make social housing financially sustainable over the long term.

You can hear more from Neal Ackral at Labour Housing Group’s fringe at Labour Party Conference in partnership with Hyde Housing: How can Labour improve the condition of existing social homes?(Monday 29th: 11:00 – 12:00, Arena Room – Kielder, Lower Level ACC Arena).

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Now is the time for the government to show its commitment for more supported housing

Paul Dolan speaking at LHG's fringe event: What is needed to end homelessness and rough sleeping under Labour?

Since becoming Chief Executive of Riverside, I have been travelling the length and breadth of the country visiting the homes we provide and the amazing difference our care and support services make.

Every day we see our services not only improve but turn people’s lives around and are a genuine lifeline for people. We know these services are the difference between just surviving or thriving. Our services provide a vital human connection which people desperately need.

The positive impact my colleagues make and the support they provide across the UK is nothing short of inspirational and humbling.

We are very proud of the help and support and the reach we deliver. But the truth is Riverside and other supported housing colleagues are facing extraordinarily challenging circumstances.

The biggest challenge is funding.

Truth be told, this funding challenge means that Riverside is not providing the scale of care and support services that we once did, but the scale of the need still remains.

In some cases, the length of the funding and the expectation to either deliver the same or more on the same funding, doesn’t deliver the life changing care and support our customers deserve. 

In April, our Chief Officer of Care and Support, John Glenton, was part of a National Housing Federation delegation, which hand delivered a letter to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer at 10 Downing Street to warn of this financial crisis facing supported housing.

The letter was signed by more than 170 organisations, from fellow housing associations, charities, local councils and frontline services.

With many local authorities in extremely difficult financial positions, they are having to make really tough decisions because of their challenging budgets. When these decisions are made, we are seeing valuable supported housing services being decommissioned because they have to make choices on where to save.

The sad truth, however, is that, once these vital supported housing services are gone, the buildings are often rented or sold for other purposes, never to be replaced.

However, on a national level this is a false economy because the cost of running a supported housing service is much cheaper than a homeless family being placed in high-cost temporary accommodation. And as a country we end up paying more for our people to have poorer quality of lives and outcomes.

This government has done sterling work to deliver long-term funding certainty and stability to the housing sector. This includes an historic long-term settlement on social rents and providing the biggest boost to social housing in a generation. As a sector, we are genuinely excited about the future.

Now is the time for this government to push forward again and provide that same long-term funding certainty for some of the most vulnerable people in society.

Supported housing, as we all know, exists to help people who need some additional support to live independently or to get their life back on track following the trauma time in their life.

Now is the time for this government to come out and show how it’s going to step up for supported housing.

Labour has a proud history in our sector with the Blair administration halving homelessness, almost eradicating rough sleeping and delivering the dedicated £1.6bn ‘Supporting People’ grant which transformed supported housing services.

We at Riverside are here to stand beside the government as willing partners with deep expertise and experience in delivering supported housing at scale.

Our message to Ministers and government is a simple one. Come and talk to us, come and visit our services. Come and see how we can provide a vital human connection which with investment can turn people’s lives around.

Let’s work together to build the world-class supported housing services our people deserve.

Paul Dolan is CEO of Riverside is a major charitable provider of social and affordable housing across England and Scotland, with more than 75,000 homes in 159 different local authorities and one of the biggest providers of care & support services across the country.  The organisation supports people in a range of settings across mental health, homelessness, youth services, extra care for older people, and veterans supported housing.

You can hear more from Paul Dolan at Labour Housing Group’s fringe at Labour Party Conference in partnership with Riverside and Homelesslink: ,‘What is needed to end homelessness and rough sleeping under Labour?’ from 09:30-10:30 on Monday 29th September in the Arena Room – Kielder, ACC within the secure zone.

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Domestic abuse as a driver of homelessness among women and children

Tens of thousands of women in England are homeless, and 40% cite domestic abuse as a contributing factor. We cannot ignore this.

The full scale of this crisis is also likely being hidden. Only around 37% of domestic abuse cases are reported, and it often takes over six years for a woman to leave an abusive home.

Let me be clear: men experience domestic abuse too. But of the estimated 2.3 million people who experienced domestic abuse in the last year, 1.6 million were women. Women are more likely to be repeat victims, suffer serious injuries, and face a higher risk of being killed by their abuser. They also report higher levels of fear and coercive control.

Systemic inequalities make this worse. Women often aren’t believed when they report abuse, and with less than 2% of cases leading to conviction, it’s easy to see why so many feel trapped.

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So how does domestic abuse lead to homelessness?

Financial dependency is a major factor. Many survivors rely economically on their abuser, making it difficult to access private rented housing due to poor credit or employment histories. And with over 1.3 million households on England’s social housing waiting list, the chances of finding a safe home are painfully slim and fleeing survivors often have nowhere to go.

This crisis deeply impacts children too. Government data shows a record 164,040 homeless children currently living in temporary accommodation.

It’s an insensitive myth that women will leave when things “get bad enough.” On average, it takes seven attempts and more than six years to leave for good. Many return due to financial insecurity, lack of housing, or fear. Other factors such as race, disability, and sexuality further complicate these challenges.

The relationship between domestic abuse and homelessness is complex and often cyclical. Some become homeless because of abuse; others enter abusive relationships to avoid homelessness. Many survivors become “hidden homeless,” sofa surfing or squatting, making it hard for support services to reach them.

Rates of domestic abuse often also spike around holidays due to financial pressure, alcohol, and social expectations. During these times, support services are harder to access, making it even more difficult for victims to seek help. Those forced to flee in winter face added challenges like cold-related health risks and worsened mental health.

So what can we do?

One solution is requiring perpetrators, not survivors, to leave the home. This promising approach has risks, however, as perpetrators still know where the survivor lives, and enforcement can be dangerous. The upcoming Crime and Policing Bill could help, by giving housing associations the power to evict individuals rather than whole households and this is certainly something worth exploring and would hopefully give more women confidence in coming forward.

At Places for People, we’ve also seen real success embedding trauma-informed approaches into our services. Since 2017, our Living Plus team has worked with organisations like Homeless Link to train staff and review policies through a trauma-informed lens. This has transformed how we support survivors.

However, trauma-informed care isn’t yet widely adopted. Barriers include unclear definitions, cultural resistance, and inconsistent training. Despite being low-cost to implement, it requires full commitment from the housing sector. Providers must prioritise staff training, policy reviews, and meaningful resident involvement.

We also need to make Housing First the default. Secure housing gives survivors a foundation to address other issues like trauma or addiction but scaling this approach is difficult due to limited affordable housing, resource constraints, and inconsistent political support. Government must invest in homes, long-term funding, and collaborative partnerships to make Housing First a reality.

Supported housing is another key part of the solution. While the Government has made progress on affordable homes, supported housing was missing from the recent Spending Review. That must change. Supported housing meets complex needs and is essential to solving homelessness.

There’s also huge power in simply doing good. At Places for People we go Beyond Homes and that means offering the support we can see people need. I’m really proud that we are supporting the Buddy Bag initiative which provides backpacks filled with essential items like toiletries, clothing, and comfort items such as books and teddy bears to children moving into emergency care, particularly those fleeing domestic abuse.   

In conclusion, domestic abuse is a major, and often hidden, driver of homelessness among women and children. Tackling it requires a joined-up, trauma-informed, gender-sensitive response across housing, social care, and justice systems. With the right investment, policies, and cultural change, we can build safer, more supportive pathways out of abuse and into stable, secure homes.

You can hear more from Branwen Evans at Labour Housing Group’s fringe at Labour Party Conference in partnership with Places for People:Safe homes for survivors of domestic abuse – what does Labour need to do? (Tuesday 30th: 11:00 – 12:00, Arena Room – Kielder, Lower Level ACC Arena).

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Social and Affordable Housing: An Engine for Economic Growth, Resilience and Social Value

The UK housing crisis has often been framed as a problem of supply, with the conversation frequently reduced to a question of how many homes can we build and how quickly. I would argue, that when we talk about social and affordable housing, the discussion should go far deeper. 

Building homes is not just about the physical building; it’s also about economic growth, healthier communities, reduced strain on public services and creating long-term value that benefits society. 

Recent Government announcements, from expanding the Affordable Housing Programme to the inclusion of housing in the National Infrastructure Pipeline offer real glimmers of hope. The commitment to New Towns, alongside a renewed focus on social and affordable housing quotas in planning, signals a recognition that housing is both critical infrastructure and a driver for prosperity and growth. 

However, in the face of economic uncertainty, the temptation for local and central government to scale back their ambition will weigh heavy. And in my view that would be a profound mistake. 

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The economic case for social and affordable Housing

Investment in social and affordable housing is set to generate a ripple effect across the economy. Research led by Shelter and the Centre for Economic and Business Research found that building 90,000 social homes a year could add £51.2bn to the economy over 30 years. This includes delivering a £12bn net profit to the taxpayer. 

This is not just an abstract theory, nor is it rocket science. When we build, we create jobs across the construction sector, manufacturing, logistics and professional services with money flowing into local supply chains. 

Affordable housing also has an impact on disposable incomes. Households paying genuinely affordable rents have more money to spend in their local economy, which supports local businesses and strengthens community resilience. When coupled with infrastructure such as new transport links and digital connectivity, the economic impact is amplified, enabling both residents and businesses to flourish. 

Reducing long-term public cost

The social case is also very compelling and the cost of not doing enough is already evident. According to Shelter more than 131,000 households were in temporary accommodation during March 2025, including 169,050 children. Local authorities spent £2.29 billion on temporary accommodation in 2023/24 an increase of 29% on the previous year. Without intervention, the numbers will continue to rise with millions being spent on B&Bs and private rentals at inflated prices. 

Social and affordable housing directly reduces this burden. By moving households into stable, permanent homes, local authorities can redirect resources towards prevention, support services and regeneration. 

The benefits extend into healthcare and education. Stable housing is linked to mental and physical health outcomes, reduced hospital admissions and better school attendance. These outcomes reduce the demand on what are already overstretched services. To put it bluntly, every social and truly affordable home built is an investment into lowering pressure on tomorrow’s public expenditure while improving the local economy. 

Social value as a metric 

Too often housing policy and investment decisions are judged solely by their immediate financial returns. However, the concept of social value, enshrined in the Public Services Act, offers a more inclusive and equitable framework. By adopting social value as a core metric, decision-makers can better identify those benefits that go beyond profit. These include meaningful outcomes for individuals and communities, such as the creation of local jobs, apprenticeships, and community facilities delivered through development projects. 

I believe that embedding social value should be a strategic priority.  That’s why we back our words with action, ensuring that every social and affordable home we deliver is designed to generate lasting economic and social benefits for the community.  From generating local employment and apprenticeships to incorporating sustainable design that helps to reduce household bills, our developments are designed to have a meaningful impact for communities and the environment.

Partnership between the public and private sector 

To achieve its ambition of delivering 370,000 homes annually, the Government must fully leverage collaboration between the public and private sector. While the public sector plays a critical role in strategic planning and ensuring development aligns with social and environmental standards, the private sector can contribute essential capital, innovation and deliver capacity. 

In addition, SMEs and new entrants will be vital in expanding the housing sectors capacity. Their agility, local knowledge, and willingness to innovate will help to unlock underutilised sites, diversify the housing market and accelerate the delivery of new homes. 

By embedding fresh perspectives into the broader partnership approach, Government can foster a more resilient housing market. Supporting SMEs through targeted procurement, access to finance, and streamlined planning processes will be vital to realising their full potential. 

Facing economic headwinds

Rising interest rates, construction inflation, and a shortage of skilled labour are genuine challenges. Yet scaling back housing delivery in response to these pressures would be a false economy. The skills gap, in particular can be addressed through housing-led investment that includes commitments to apprenticeships and training in modern methods of construction (MMC), helping to modernise the sector while expanding. 

With strong partnerships, innovative delivery models and unwavering political will, we can build the homes that pay back their cost many times over in economic growth, reduced public spending, and stronger, healthier communities. Abandoning or watering down this commitment would not only leave tens of thousands of people without the homes they need, but it will also weaken the economy, widen inequality and miss the chance to deliver one of the most effective long-term investments available to any government. 

The message from academic research, housing leaders and developers on the front line of delivering social and affordable housing is clear. Social housing is social value, and social value has capital value. Officially reclassifying it as critical infrastructure can unlock billions in stable investment, backed by a clear policy direction and planning alignment. If Government can stay the course and long-term funding is maintained, the UK can do more than just house its citizens. It can anchor its economy in stable inclusive growth. 

For households and communities still feeling the impact of the increase in the cost-of-living crisis, new social housing represents not just a shelter, but real hope. It is a visible commitment to rebuilding the social contract, a recognition that everyone deserves a safe, affordable home as a basic human right and foundation for prosperity and opportunity. 

You can hear more from Mark Powell at Labour Housing Group’s fringe at Labour Party Conference in partnership with EDAROTH: How can Labour reach 1.5 million homes through harnessing SMEs and innovative approaches? (Monday 29th: 15:30 – 16:30)

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Labour’s first year in Government has kickstarted a generational uplift in social housebuilding

Like many in the Labour movement, fixing the housing crisis has been a key priority for me before and throughout my journey into politics.

Throughout my early career working on planning reform in the Treasury, to co-ordinating between boroughs at regional and sub-regional levels, to directly programming and delivering social homes in local government, the challenge and potential of social housing has been ever-present to me.

Every social home we build represents a household with a stable roof over their head, shielded from the increasingly unaffordable private rental sector. It is a child who is protected from moving miles to a new school after being rehoused into temporary accommodation; it is a pensioner freed from the worry of their rent increasing beyond their fixed income; it is a carer whose Local Housing Allowance is being reinvested into the state rather than funnelled into a landlord’s bank account. Most importantly, every social home we deliver puts the sector as a whole on a firmer footing, guarantees stable income to run a sustainable service, and provides a tangible asset for registered providers to lend against in building even more social homes.

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It is easy to pin the blame for the state of social housing on the first introduction of the Right to Buy, which led to the mass sell-off of council homes, but we cannot let the past 15 years of neglectful Tory Governments of the hook either. From cutting the Affordable Homes Programme by 40% upon entering office, to supercharging the Right to Buy, as well as suppressing rents for years, the Conservatives enabled the sell-off of social homes while stripping away the ability to build more. From 2012 to 2024, 124,000 homes were sold on the Right to Buy, at the same time as the number of households in temporary accommodation increased to 127,890.

This alone is challenging enough, but the Conservatives’ decisions on housing delivery were also deeply harmful by letting developers off the hook with a range of intermediate tenures. The introduction of affordable rent in 2011, and the inclusion of student accommodation and build-to-rent housing within planning guidance from 2019, have all funnelled crucial developer contributions towards other tenures and further weakened social rent.

The fact that this has come at the same time as a historically difficult environment for delivery has resulted in a perfect storm preventing new social homes. Supply chain inflation and skills shortages have all increased the cost of building, at the same time as social housing providers have faced financial squeeze from introduction of important regulation in building safety, social housing regulation, as well as the pressing need to decarbonise our housing stock.

The result has been profound for the sector, as the delivery of new social homes slumped from 60,000 in 2010/11 to under 10,000 in 2023/4.

We need safer, warmer, and better-managed social homes, and we cannot expect social providers to deliver this alongside more homes without substantial support.

And this is exactly what the new Government has provided. Within a single year of power, Labour has introduced a number of reforms which will not only prevent the sell-off of social homes and laying the groundwork for a generational boost to this most important tenure which was laid out in our manifesto.

The Government has curtailed the Right to Buy, reducing the available discounts and setting forward a number of new reforms including ensuring that council tenants are truly long-term residents by ensuring that they have lived there for ten years, removing newbuild council homes from the Right to Buy, and preventing homes sold through the Right to Buy from being let out in the private rental sector.

Importantly, the Government also made it easier to build new social homes, through reforms to planning and focus increasingly on social rent. Three particular changes here have been particularly exciting to me: the decision to instruct England to focus Affordable Homes Programme spending on social rent; the new Compulsory Purchase powers in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill which will allow local authorities to purchase land for social homes at use value, rather than inflated ‘hope value’; and the ‘golden rules’ allocated to ‘grey belt’ sites of low-quality land on the edge of cities, which will prioritise the development of affordable homes.

Finally, the Government has provided a stable financial footing at the most recent Spending Review for registered providers to increase supply at pace. Alongside the much-discussed £39 billion Affordable Homes Programme, other grant funding for decarbonisation and building safety will reduce the pressures faced by the sector to bring existing stock up to date, and a ten-year rent settlement will bring their revenue in real terms back up to 2015 levels and enable for longer term business planning.

The significant investment in social housing by this Government shows a key recognition of the value of a social tenancy.  But we cannot rest on the laurels of this progress and we need to continue to find and address faults preventing the development of new social homes.

One of these has to be around developer contributions, the Section 106 process and viability assessments. Local authorities and housing campaigners rightly complain that developers too often sidestep contributions, make the most of loopholes, or renegotiate affordable housing requirements after Section 106 agreements are made, and discerning what is a reasoned response to a fast-changing delivery environment is challenging. This is particularly the case as we look more and more on land value uplift to deliver what the state has failed to do for the past 15 years, whether that is building roads, GP surgeries or schools, or building social homes. We need streamlining of this process to ensure that agreements are conducted transparently and enforced effectively. Prioritising social rent and empowering local authorities to scrutinise developer claims, would all help in this area.

The Government also needs to press forward in its work to reform the Building Safety Regulator. Social housebuilders are those with the least resources and are more likely to be looking into building high rises than homes for market sale, and so ensuring that mandatory guidance is given beforehand and that feedback from failed applications is readily available is crucial as the new regime embeds itself.

Finally, social homes need to be at the heart of the Government’s New Towns vision. If these are to live up to their promise and deliver genuinely new communities in new settlements or urban extensions, then affordable and secure options need to be present for those priced out of home ownership.

Labour’s record of delivery on housing policy in its first year of government has been impressive, and I am proud of the work already done to lay the groundwork for the generational boost in social housing as promised in our manifesto. Undoing decades of decline under the previous Government’s tenure will have a meaningful impact on living standards and make meaningful progress on the human consequences endured by the hundreds of thousands of people in temporary accommodation.  We must continue to act quickly and decisively and to prioritise any measures which will create more social homes, and to deliver the change which millions of people voted for a year ago.

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Labour must learn from success in addressing the housing skills shortage

The Government’s ambitious 1.5m homes housing target was widely welcomed by the house-building industry and NHBC. While the Government moves forward to address the barriers posed by the planning system through its Planning and Infrastructure Bill, another pressing issue threatens the target: the industry skills shortage.

Estimates of the number of new construction recruits required vary, with the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) placing the figure at 239,000 needed by 2029 to meet demand. Calculations factoring in the additional workforce requirements of constructing the new towns initiative yield larger figures. What we know for certain is that the figure is large and current apprenticeship throughput won’t  produce the additional skilled workers to deliver the numbers needed to reach 1.5m homes.

Growing the construction workforce faces several challenges for both the supply and demand for skills. The 1.5m homes target runs parallel to government commitments on retrofit and national infrastructure, whose workforce is generally drawn from the same pool. At the same time, the make-up of the workforce continues to change with the proportion of workers aged 50 and over increasing from around one in four in 2005 to one in three by 2024.

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While our need for new skilled construction workers increases, firms are struggling to find the skills necessary to meet extant demand, leading to delays and rising costs. The Federation of Master Builders (FMB) State of Trade Survey from H1 2025 found that 61% of respondents reported being  affected by a lack of skilled tradespeople, 49% said that this caused job delays and 23% said it had led to job cancellations. 

Importantly for homebuyers, sub-standard skills and shortages may impact quality. When builders are forced to settle for less skilled tradespeople, there is a heightened risk that quality suffers and the number of defects increase.

Data compiled in the NHBC Foundation’s recent report Maintaining quality in the design and construction of 1.5m homes illustrates the historic relationship between the volume of home completions and customer satisfaction, with satisfaction tending to decrease as volume increases. Ensuring an adequate supply of skills will be crucial in breaking that trend.

Unfortunately, the existing skills system fails to deliver the numbers necessary to meet that need. According to Department of Education data, approximately 24,000 construction apprenticeships were started in England in the most recent year.  However, once you account for achievement rates, only around half of these apprentices complete their courses.

Perceptions of construction are often cited as the cause for the struggling workforce but 24,000 apprenticeship starts is a sizeable number. We need to look more closely at why these apprentices are dropping out of their courses, failing to meet the required standard or deciding not to enter the industry at the end of their course.

At NHBC we believe that we have managed to square that circle. In 2020, we launched our first training hub in Tamworth, initially focusing on bricklaying Level 2 qualifications. This training hub took a unique approach to construction training, guided by the needs of house builders. The hub mimics real site conditions, consisting of an open space with a large slab of concrete, covered only by a canopy and surrounded by cabins with teaching rooms and a canteen facility.

Apprentices begin their learning with a five-week block at the hub, as opposed to the usual day release, starting and finishing at the times they would on a real site. They are required to wear the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) they would on a construction site and follow the same safety protocols. This differs from traditional apprenticeships, where traditional providers (understandably) are restricted by the size of their estate.

Our hubs do not have the same restrictions. The Tamworth hub was set up on land on an existing Redrow development as it was being constructed. The ‘pop-up’ nature of the hubs allows us to choose locations that replicate the site experience as closely as possible.

After spending weeks learning essential skills, apprentices go on site for ten weeks with the ability to confidently lay bricks and contribute from day one. This allows them to build relationships, take on responsibility and makes an apprentice a more attractive option for employers.

This approach has yielded exciting results. Our completion rate is an industry-leading 80-90%, with the majority of our apprentices continuing to work with their employers. If these figures were replicated across the industry thousands more skilled tradespeople would be entering the construction sector every year.

NHBC’s initial success at Tamworth prompted the opening of an additional three hubs in Cambridge, Newcastle and Hull.

NHBC is a non-profit distributing company whose core purpose is to raise standards in house building. This has enabled us to reinvest £100m towards the creation of 12 larger multi-skill hubs, each two thirds of the size of a football pitch and offering broader trades needed within the local area such as bricklaying, groundwork and site carpentry, with timber fame erection planned for later hubs. Once all 12 hubs are open, we expect to have capacity for 3,000 apprentice starts every year.

Yet challenges persist; the industry would benefit greatly from a more flexible growth and skills levy and small employers still struggle to engage with the skills system, but the hub model has potential to be replicated across a swathe of trades and revolutionise construction skills.

Our team stands ready to share our expertise with any organisation wishing to replicate our success.

David Campbell is the Chief Operating Officer of NHBC, the UK’s largest new homes warranty and insurance provider. NHBC is a non-profit distributing company whose core purpose is to raise standards in house-building.

You can hear more from David Campbell at Labour Housing Group’s fringe at Labour Party Conference in partnership with NHBC: How can the Labour Government solve the housing skills shortage? (Monday 29th: 17:00 – 18:00)

Categories
Blog Post

Breaking the Cycle: The route out of crisis, and towards a country free from homelessness

In my role with Homeless Link, I am fortunate enough to visit homelessness support and prevention services all over the country.  And each visit reinforces two twin beliefs.

Firstly, our country faces a homelessness emergency.

Secondly – but just as important – homelessness organisations (many of them amongst the  750+ Homeless Link members), with tens of thousands of committed and skilled staff, have the necessary skills and ability to turn the tide and build a country without homelessness.

The opportunity we need to seize now

The government is right now preparing to publish a new Homelessness Strategy. This needs to deliver:

  • An urgent response worthy of the scale of homelessness emergency.
  • An ambitious, resourced plan to deliver on that vision of a country without homelessness.

This is not a case of a sticking plaster now and a 10-year plan later. These dual ambitions are two sides of the same coin. A long-term plan can only succeed if the immediate crisis is effectively relieved. And the same interventions that the long-term plan requires are critical to securing homes for those facing homelessness right now.

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The emergency we’re facing

The scale of this crisis is difficult to overstate. Year-after-year, quarter-after-quarter unwanted new records are set as homelessness of all kinds spirals out of control. It is shameful that more than 130,000 households are currently living in temporary accommodation including just under 170,000 children.

At the same time, homelessness support services are being forced to close their doors due to financial pressures. There’s been a 43% reduction in the number of bedspaces in England since 2008. This concurrence is no coincidence

Years of austerity have unquestionably fuelled this cycle of crisis. The funding model for homelessness services has degraded into a patchwork of inefficient and bureaucratic grants. While those grant levels have failed to keep pace with inflation and years of rising demand.

None of this will have come as a surprise to the Labour Government. In opposition Angela Rayner rightly stated that current homelessness levels were “a national disgrace.”

But the numbers don’t lie and one year into a Labour Government homelessness continues to rise. Behind each of those numbers is an incredibly difficult situation for a real person and their family.

Progress has been made

That said, the Labour Government has introduced some welcome measures. The creation of the Inter-Ministerial Group on Homelessness is valuable recognition of the importance of cross-government working. The Renter’s Rights Bill will introduce new securities for tenants. And the repeal of the Vagrancy Act will be a major moment in the history of the state’s attitudes to homelessness.

But whether I’m in London, Bristol, Manchester, Sheffield or Doncaster, too often the message I hear from frontline homelessness support workers is “nothing much has changed.”

A real sea-change in approach is needed. More of the same will simply deliver more of the same results: rising homelessness, rising government spending and years of pain for people denied a safe and secure home.

The Homelessness Strategy can kick start the change we need to see

That the promised new Strategy has cross-departmental authorship is welcome. But more important is to bake in true cross-departmental accountability. For real change we need to see every arm of Government embrace ending homelessness as core to their mission.

This means a central, permanent ending homelessness taskforce to coordinate cross-departmental efforts. It means departments putting their money where their mouth is. And it means impact assessments on how all new policies could affect homelessness levels.

Housing, health, welfare, employment, immigration and more – every department has a part to play, but we particularly need strong leadership from the Treasury to fix the failed funding system that has caused the decline in homelessness service capacity since 2008.

The costs as well as causes of homelessness are cross-departmental. But those costs are simply not tracked. There’s no accurate figure for the amount paid in Enhanced Housing Benefit. The financial cost to the health service of homelessness is estimated to be huge, but potential savings to the NHS if homelessness was reduced are never factored into budget decisions.

We’re long overdue a systematic review of all spending and the true cost of homelessness. Once this is completed, a single ringfenced budget designed to prevent and end homelessness for good should be created. We’ll then be in a much better position to take informed, cost-effective and holistic decisions on homelessness policy.

Get this right, and we can break the cycle

These two measures – serious leadership on funding reform from the Treasury and genuine cross departmental accountability – can unlock the solutions to deliver on the twin goals I mentioned at the beginning of this article: ending the homelessness emergency and laying the foundations for a country free from homelessness.

With a full understanding of homelessness costs, we would avoid false economy cuts. Take Housing First for example – a proven effective – and cost-effective – intervention that supports people to exit rough sleeping and secure a long-term home. It is exactly the sort of intervention we should be championing and expanding. But due to a funding model that rewards short-termism, Housing First spaces are currently in decline.

And the most cost-effective way to manage homelessness is to prevent it happening in the first place. More importantly of course, this is also the best outcome for the person involved.

Through more cross-departmental accountability, we can make early interventions that prevent homelessness the norm across all public services: whether in schools, job centres or local health services.

Joined-up working is not only important at a Ministerial level of course. Some of the most effective cross-departmental working would be between local health and social care teams and local authority teams working on homelessness.

In Exeter and Eastbourne I’ve seen really successful examples of this – what a scandal that they are both facing funding cliff edges and risk of closure next March!

Instead these holistic models of service delivery should be supported, encouraged and securely and adequately resourced by central government. This is what we are asking this government – and I mean all relevant Ministers in this government – to deliver.

The next steps on the journey to a country free from homelessness

Homeless Link will be continuing our Breaking the Cycle campaign over the coming weeks and months.

If you are at Labour Party Conference you can find out more by joining the Labour Housing Group Fringe Event we are sponsoring – ‘Ending Single Homelessness under Labour.’ You can also sign-up to get our regular News and Updates emails.

Categories
Blog Post Class of 2024

Tackling the Housing Crisis: How the Planning and Infrastructure Bill will unlock Britain’s potential

Places and people are why I entered politics. When I decided to run for council leader three years after I first entered local politics, after a decade of  Conservative government and cuts to local authorities, I campaigned on a platform of reversing the decline and stagnant growth my local area faced. Regeneration and planning became a cornerstone of my ambition from leading council-led regeneration, which included thousands of genuinely affordable homes, to progressing a new Local Plan that designated space for 30,000 new homes alongside new schools, GP surgeries and parks.

Importantly, part of the Local Plan that I led on included re-designating green belt land for housing. Far from lush, biodiverse fields, this green belt was truly grey belt land – garden centres and golf courses right next to train stations – perfect for desperately-needed family-sized, affordable homes. The local Conservatives campaigned against the project. Their anti-growth sentiment was also reflected at a national level by their colleagues in government, who repeatedly failed to address the housing crisis and to deliver vital infrastructure projects during their 14-year tenure.

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As the newly elected Member of Parliament for Barking, I am constantly reminded of the human cost of the Conservative’s failure to tackle the housing crisis. Every week, I meet constituents who share with me their personal and desperate stories about overcrowding, years spent in temporary accommodation, poor-quality housing, and sky-high rents.

Barking has a rich history founded in its industrial heritage – including the former Barking Power Station –  and as home to the UK’s largest council estate built after the First World War as part of the Government’s ‘Homes Fit for Heroes’ scheme.

That legacy of pioneering council housing continues today. Inside Housing reports that Barking & Dagenham Council tops the national list of council housebuilders. Between 2023-2024 the local authority built 879 homes, with a further 1,901 set to be completed in the next five years. They have also just adopted a new Local Plan, with the vision to construct 50,000 new homes by 2037, so that my constituency can remain a place where working Londoners can raise their families in secure and decent homes. Labour locally and nationally is on a mission to tackle the housing crisis at its root, by increasing supply, but too often, support for new homes is a national patchwork. For every council championing new homes, there are others where the political culture is centred around blocking them.

I know from my own time as a councillor that resilient local politicians can make or break a housing project. MPs and Councillors are good at engaging with residents – after all, we run elections and win them – but not all planning committees are robust or resilient enough to take on anti-developer campaigns, even when it’s clear that an area is in desperate need of investment and regeneration. Equally, I’ve seen too many examples of councils too anxious to have an area-wide conversation about housing by developing an adequate Local Plan, and instead rely on unplanned development. Over 60% of local authorities do not have an up-to-date Local Plan – the appropriate vehicle to set out a vision for new housing in an area.

That’s why I was pleased to sit on the Bill Committee for the Labour Government’s new Planning and Infrastructure Bill which – alongside changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) last year – represents the biggest reform to housebuilding and planning in a generation. It introduces major reforms to the Town and Country Planning Act, compulsory purchase rules and the current infrastructure regime while introducing a Nature Restoration Fund to facilitate Environmental Delivery Plans. Changes to legislation effecting development corporations will expand the development of New Towns. The Olympic Park, the regeneration of Canary Wharf and the Docklands are just some examples of successful projects led by development corporations that have transformed parts of East London into economic hubs, now home to thousands of families.

The Bill also includes measures to modernise planning committees, empowering local leaders to make regeneration schemes and ambitious Local Plans become the norm, not the exception.

The over-use of council planning committees can slow down decision-making and result in councils losing appeal when committees have refused applications against the recommendations of their officers, or even when development was previously agreed in a Local Plan. The voices of people who need housing go unheard in debates. New standardised delegation schemes will ensure the right decisions are being made by planning officers, using a local authorities’ Local Plans as the basis for decisions, with more significant applications continuing to be made by planning committees.

Next, investment in infrastructure is essential to bring forward larger sites and to address residents’ concerns. In my own constituency of Barking, I have witnessed these challenges firsthand. Barking Riverside is a development on the Thames Estuary that includes over 10,000 new homes. It has a new overground station, industrial sites, commercial businesses, community centres and several schools. However, the area does not have a GP surgery – something I am campaigning on today. Adequate Infrastructure Delivery Plans alongside Local Plans will help councillors hold developers to account. 

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill puts infrastructure at the heart of development. Currently, the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) regime, used to approve most major infrastructure projects, has failed to deliver critical infrastructure on time. The National Infrastructure Commission reports that decisions for major projects now take over four years compared to two and a half years in 2010. 

The Government’s new Bill removes the statutory requirement to consult as part of the pre-application stage for NSIP applications. The changes will mean that delays are reduced, and essential infrastructure is consented to faster. That will save up to 12 months from the pre-application stage and millions, if not billions, of pounds. It could make the difference between whether an infrastructure proposal is viable or not, and between whether homes are built in an area or not. Crucially, communities will still get a chance to oppose new projects as part of the post-submission stage.

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill maintains the existing legal and policy protections that ensure that irreplaceable ancient woods and trees are protected, while also delivering a more strategic approach to improve the environment. The introduction of a Nature Restoration Fund will facilitate the implementation of Environmental Delivery Plans (EDP), this new holistic approach will move away from the single development assessment model and put forward conservation measures in consultation with Natural England, and other key stakeholders, like our British farmers across the country, the reforms will maximise environmental protection and improve public access to green space.  

Ultimately, if a Government is serious about tackling the housing crisis, then this country must get building. Much of the debate on the Government’s planning changes has focused on objections based on environmental concerns. But the truth is, this landmark Bill will streamline and accelerate the delivery of 1.5 million homes, that are so desperately needed. It will help reverse the decline and stagnation I first stood against as a council leader, set out a strategic approach to mitigate the environmental impact of new homes, and ensure places and people benefit from Labour’s Plan for Change.  

Categories
10-year plan for housing Blog Post

A housing and climate win-win is available but is it on the government’s radar?

[The benefits of timber framed homes are becoming more apparent. Source: Donaldson Offsite Timber Systems]

As the Labour government heads into its second year a niggling worry is beginning to grow. To date no senior Labour figure has clearly and publicly articulated that the housing and climate crises are intertwined.

With 40 per cent of global climate emissions sourced from the built environment, the government needs to make it clear that it is alert to the danger that building 1.5 million new homes in the traditional way could make it impossible for the UK to reach net zero by 2050.

The good news is that the exact opposite is also possible: the completion of every desperately needed new home using different materials could also help to address positively the climate crisis.

Why is the built environment such a major cause of the climate crisis? Concrete, steel, bricks and breeze blocks can only be manufactured using large amounts of energy to generate heat, energy which is still predominately sourced from the burning of fossil fuels.

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Concrete is an acute problem because, as well as the energy needed, the manufacturing process of extracting the lime from the limestone triggers a chemical reaction that releases CO2 into the atmosphere. In fact concrete is responsible for a staggering eight per cent of total global carbon emissions[2]. Steel is almost as problematic but is partly redeemed by its high recycling rates. Currently virtually everything we build has an unnecessarily large amount of embodied carbon i.e. our new buildings come with large carbon footprints.

The government, or at least parts of it, is aware of this significant climate problem hence the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government commissioned a recently published external report The practical, technical and economic impacts of measuring and reducing embodied carbon in new buildings.[3]

It is not just the embodied carbon in a new build that is a climate problem. CO2 emissions continue after construction because buildings typically need to be heated. Again, this is mainly done using energy sourced from fossil fuels. In this case the solution is: much better insulation.  

Is there then a material out there that we could use as a substitute for concrete, steel, brick and block? Yes: timber! Scotland, Canada, the USA and the Nordic countries build 80 per cent of their family homes with timber frames. But England builds less than 20 per cent. Does it matter? Yes. Timber’s carbon footprint is considerably lower than most construction materials, plus it also stores carbon – a virtue that will be of increasing importance in achieving net zero.

Recent developments with a material known as engineered timber or mass timber mean that it is now possible to build at height and at scale with timber in urban settings. Labour-led Hackney Council has the largest concentration of large engineered timber buildings in the world – including flats, offices, a cinema and a church.

Professor Michael Ramage of the University of Cambridge calculated that erecting a 300-square-metre, four-storey student residence in wood generated only 126 tonnes of CO2 emissions. If it had been made with concrete the tally would have risen to 310 tonnes. If steel had been used emissions would have topped 498 tonnes. Indeed the wood building can be viewed as ‘carbon negative’ as there is the equivalent of 540 tonnes of CO2 stored in the timber, resulting in a long-term removal of CO2 from the atmosphere.[4]

A switch to building more with wood rightly raises questions around the supply of sustainable timber. Reassurance here is provided by Sir David Attenborough speaking in a WWF video on forests in 2019.[5]

“… our growing global population will need to use more wood and that could be a good thing. Wood is an extraordinary renewable resource and taking it from well managed sources benefits forests and the planet. But on their own natural forests can’t provide all the wood we need so we also have to farm trees just like we do other crops and create a new generation of plantations.”

It’s these new plantations or new commercial forests that the government needs to ensure are planted. Currently the UK has amongst the lowest levels of forest cover in Europe. However we do have land on which we could plant new trees especially in the uplands.

Switching to more timber in construction would also store significantly more carbon. So much so that initial calculations point to carbon stored in timber in the built environment in future being able to match the government’s proposed Carbon Capture and Storage scheme under the North Sea and Irish Sea i.e. 8.5 Mt CO2e.[6] [7]

How then could the government speed up the use of timber in construction to the benefit of the climate?

1. Implement the Environmental Audit Committee’s 2022 proposal to legislate for mandatory whole-life carbon assessment of all new buildings, including the amount of stored carbon, as part of the planning permission process.[8]

2. Set maximum standards for the carbon footprints of new builds and their energy use which can then be tightened over time as we aim for net zero in 2050.

3. Incentivise the use of nature-based materials such as timber in construction, including insulation, in part by recognising that the storage of carbon in buildings is a climate benefit.

4. Facilitate education about the use of nature-based materials across the whole of the construction-value chain.

5. Increase the home-grown sustainable wood supply by increasing commercial forest planting.

6. Implement the Timber in Construction Roadmap 2025 which includes working with industry and academia to identify opportunities for and barriers to the use of timber in retrofit and promote best practice and innovation by 2027.[9]

Labour is right to state that there is no magic money tree. There is however – when it comes to tackling climate breakdown – a magic sustainable timber tree. This Labour government could deliver the homes the country desperately needs and at the same time could turn the built environment into a carbon sink rather than a carbon emitter. To do so would be a win-win for Labour, the country and the climate – time for Rayner and Miliband to hold a joint press conference.