More Than Houses

Land valuation, home ownership, family living: such historic and cultural practices are being thrown into question by the housing crisis.

Why have we still got a ‘housing crisis’ in the 21st century? ‘Solving’ this complex issue calls for more than a succession of government targets for numbers of new homes to be built each year; the industry also needs to raise its ambition and innovate. So how can we really ensure that we build the right homes in the right places at the right price for the right people? The government has scrapped the cap on how much councils can borrow to build new homes, which is welcome. James Brokenshire, as Secretary of State for the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG), has expressed the government’s commitment to “building the right number of homes in the right places” and is appointing a ‘New Homes Ombudsman’, although this appears to encourage and support home ownership.

But many questions remain to be answered:
- Should anyone be ‘homeless’ in the 21st century? This may be an extreme expression of inequality, but we cannot escape the overall inequality of our social structure.
- Does our cultural attitude to home ownership suggest that renting your home is a sign of failure and so put pressure on the ‘need to buy’, despite unrealistically high prices?
- How are we addressing changing demographics with more single person households, and catering for groups such as elderly people, who may have varying needs for homes and place?
- What are our new housing models in today’s housing landscape of private developers, local authorities and housing associations?
- How can land be valued for the benefit of the wider community (including the provision of high quality social facilities) instead of being a lottery based on hope value and scarcity?
- How do we ensure that ‘affordable housing’ is affordable when the cost of housing seems to have become detached from earnings?
- How can we raise our ambition and ensure that all our citizens have safe and affordable housing in line with SDG 11, with access to sustainable transport and employment?
- Should we also improve protection for tenants, as is available in many European countries?
- How can we ensure quality both of building and place, not just quantity of dwellings?
- Do we need a comprehensive national and regional spatial plan?
- Is it time to rethink ‘housing’?

This session will explore the issues and we will invite the audience to contribute their own suggestions. By the session end we will identify three key recommendations as the most universally applicable.

This session was developed with the Ecobuild Conference at Futurebuild

Chair: 
Jane Briginshaw, Director, Design England

Speakers: 
Paul Chatterton - University of Leeds & author of Unlocking Sustainable Cities A Manifesto for Real Change
Heather Cheesbrough - Croydon Council
Jon Sawyer - Manchester City Council
Susan J Smith - University of Cambridge

We have all been to a lot of housing debates where it all seems a bit intractable. The Edge felt the need to try something different…
The last great housing crisis was after the war. More than a market solution was needed and we got the iconoclastic 1947 Planning Act.

We have another great crisis that does not look like it is going to get solved by market forces alone. What should we do if we really believe providing enough houses at prices people can afford is not just a priority but the basis of future prosperity and stability?

Our debate imagined that the PM asked this question and created a task force to go away think the unthinkable – what would be today’s equivalent of the 1947 Planning Act?
We had a panel of experts, led by Gary Younge of the Guardian and son of Stevenage. We know what the market solution is and we can imagine what an extreme position might be. What we wanted from our panel is something between, unthinkable in terms of today’s politics, but nevertheless possible at a stretch and perhaps even practical.

Gary played the part of the cabinet minister charged with preparing The Plan and the audience the experts convened to offer ideas and criticism for the emerging policy to be presented to the Cabinet. The debate asked not whether ideas are unthinkable, but whether they are not unthinkable enough, or are they just too unthinkable. The debate was about finding workable, if, for some, unpalatable, escape routes from our current predicament.

Chair:
• Gary Younge, The Guardian

Speakers:
• Matt Leach, Chief Executive, Local Trust
• Nick Corbyn, Senior Development Manager, Land Securities
• Stuart Andrews, National Head of Planning & Infrastructure Consenting, Eversheds
• Vicky Pryce, Board member, Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr)
• Tom Mann, Director Residential Development, Savills
• Andrew Screen, Managing Director, Trade Risks Ltd
• Frances Coppola, Sheffield University

Venue: 
Eversheds Sutherland
1 Wood Street, London EC2V 7WS

The debate was run by the Edge and Eversheds.

Downloads:

Event invite

Event report

Following the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower various investigative processes were set up and are still to report Without pre-empting the outcomes it would be fair to say that there appear to be some systemic problems in the construction industry and that it is vital that the industry responds with a serious look at how it can improve standards and quality of design, delivery, compliance and enforcement, accountability while overcoming the performance gap in use. This is not only as a collective professional duty, but also necessary to instil confidence in the building users. Quality in construction and the built environment has an impact across a broad spectrum from environmental performance and resource stewardship to human health and well-being. Have we abandoned too much red tape’? Do quality and regulations actually reinforce each other? How do we ensure that fit for purpose specifications agreed by the design team are delivered on site? How do we manage value engineering’? Are present procurement methods and costs a barrier to getting things right? Is it time for a quality campaign to bring back confidence in the industry? This session will explore the issues with a focus on housing, both new build and retrofit, for which the construction industry is now very challenged to deliver with long term quality and value. We will invite the audience to contribute their own suggestions and by the session end we will identify three key recommendations as the most universally applicable.

Videos:
- See Peter Caplehorn discuss the debate here

In collaboration with the Good Homes Alliance

Chair:
Jane Duncan

Speakers:
Lynne Sullivan - LSA Studio, Chair Good Homes Alliance & the Edge
Richard Cook - Head of Residential Lendlease
Paula Higgins - Founder and CEO, Home Owners Alliance
Peter Caplehorn - Deputy Chief Executive and Policy Director Construction Products Association
Robin Nicholson - Senior Partner Cullinan Studio & the Edge

The imbalances and inequalities of the housing market have been well documented. It is our collective responsibility to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 11 by 2030 to ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing. Are we ignoring the economics of housing? Are there more effective ways of providing for all, retaining quality and delivering quantity? Is the British dream’ of homeownership a chimera? Do we have responsible leadership to overcome the problems? This session will explore challenging and new solutions to the problem. We will invite the audience to contribute their own suggestions and by the session end we will identify three key recommendations as the most universally applicable.

Chair: 
Jane Briginshaw - Jane Briginshaw Associates & the Edge

Speakers: 
Polly Toynbee - journalist and writer
John East - Strategic Director Growth and Homes London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
David Roberts - Director Igloo
Claire O’Shaughnessy - Director Deloitte Real Estate

12.00 - 13.00 Ecobuild Conference

The 2017 White Paper Fixing our broken housing market says:
“The housing market needs to operate differently to start to address affordability and deliver the step change in house building that is required. The Government proposes to support different parts of the market, including new entrants, to boost productivity.”

So, how realistic is it for new players to meet the government’s expectations and deliver a step change in production?
• Can new SMEs make a significant impact?
• Can local authorities build enough homes to solve the crisis?
• Are barriers to entry too great? How can they be overcome?
• Do the big builders restrain trade for new smaller companies?
• How can the terms of trade be made fairer for new SMEs?
• What is it really like to try to break into the market? What can we learn from that experience?
• Should we even try to rely on firms that aren’t big enough ride out a recession?

Chair:
Terrie Alafat CBE: CEO Chartered Institute of Housing

Speakers:
• Andrew Whitaker: Planning Director, Home Builders Federation
• Dr Janice Morphet: Visiting Professor, Bartlett School of Planning, UCL
• Janet Sutherland: Housing consultant for Pocket Homes & formerly senior housing officer at Lewisham & Camden Councils
• Stephen Hill: C20 futureplanners

Venue:
Sir Peter Hall Room (G.01)
Bartlett School of Planning, UCL
Central House, 14 Upper Woburn Place
London WC1H 0NN

The debate was run by the Edge and the Place Alliance.

Presentations:

- ED81 - Janice Morphet presentation
- ED81 - Janet Sutherland presentation

Debate Reports:

- Just get on with it! - Jane Briginshaw 26/9/17
- Edge Debate 81 New housing players: Debate notes