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1 October 2009
Improving housing supply and housing markets - does mortgage finance need to be thoroughly reconsidered?
Recently we would appear to have seen the first signs of a long-awaited revival in the economy. However, the short-term outlook must be viewed with caution. It’s simply too early to say that a sustainable recovery is now underway, but the early signs are encouraging. However, there are uncertainties arising from the country entering a pre-election phase and from unemployment continuing to rise.
When the recovery does get underway it will show even more starkly that there is a significant shortage of housing in Britain. In better times we have not been producing enough new homes to meet the demand, let alone now when production levels are at historic lows. This is widely recognised by many people and government too, and therefore it must be of considerable concern. It’s important therefore that every effort is made to increase the supply of new housing and a broader, more competitive market for home loans would be an important aspect of this.
Reconsidering mortgage finance
Properly functioning housing markets rely very much on the availability of finance for home loans and yet it does not look likely that the supply of funds will increase dramatically for some time yet. This will put a break on house prices recovering. Does the whole issue of finance for house purchase therefore need to be thoroughly reconsidered? Is the reliance on the banks and building societies as the principal suppliers the only answer for the future?
The volatility of finance from these institutions during this recession has had serious consequences for the housing market. Government needs to address how home buyers will be financed in the future. Are there for example other financial institutions likely to be interested in some form of public / private partnership that specialises in finance for home loans? Lord Turner has considered the way that banks operate with a view to more competition and it would be advantageous for the stability of the housing market going forward if something similar would happen to the home loan market.
Planning and localism
As I’ve noted in my blog previously, planning is a significant restriction on housing supply. The system has been criticised by the development industry for years and is generally slow and cumbersome. It is an issue that a future Government is going to have to address.
The Conservative’s localism agenda is laudable in a number of ways as community led initiatives can make a real impact on people's lives and they are rarely dependent on large amounts of grant funding. However, localism without local economic development targets could well mean no development activity whatsoever for the foreseeable future. To ensure a decent level of housing supply in the future surely what we need is localism in response to national housing policy.
Affordable housing
The need for more affordable housing has significantly increased as there are so many more people at present who can’t afford to buy a home or pay market rent. Housing associations and local authorities are their only real option at present. However, new affordable housing has been significantly curtailed due to the reliance on cross subsidy from homes for sale and many regeneration and affordable housing projects have subsequently stalled during this recession.
Government through the HCA has introduced schemes to help stimulate new private and affordable housebuilding but these initiatives, as well intentioned as they are, are of limited scope and therefore impact.
Design quality and sustainability
Whatever initiatives come about to improve the supply of new housing it is very important that high design standards are achieved. CABE’s recent research shows how important this issue is to the public. There has been an improvement in design standards by many developers in recent years, but sadly this has not applied across the board as much as it should have.
There’s also the important issue of sustainability – environmentally, socially and economically and these issues will have to be addressed in any programme designed to increase the supply of new housing. Whatever action is taken we must ensure that we produce better quality homes that are sustainable and improve people’s quality of life.
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24 October 2008
Design, place making and the Stirling Prize
What is good design? For me it is what is preferred by the majority of people rather than the elite minority. There are some new home developers including my own company who do give significant attention to design. Architecture isn’t just about the buildings, important as they are, it’s about sustainability, about creating places that people will enjoy and it’s very much concerned with creating sustainable communities that will stand the test of time.
We are delighted that our Cambridge development, Accordia, has just won the UK’s premier architectural prize, the RIBA Stirling Prize. This is of course testament to the design skills of the architects that we employed, but it is also an award for our vision in developing the brief and having the dedication to implement it. Accordia is a community that will prevail and the elite minority, the judges, awarded the prize because they could see the quality of the place making concept that we conceived and worked up with the architects would work well and be attractive to the majority. We see the award of the Stirling Prize, to a housing project for the very first time, as a historic success that brings long overdue recognition of what we have been achieving for a number of years in many other places.
As a society we have many concerns about our living environments and Accordia addresses many of these concerns. I have mentioned place making already but this term should also include the long-term management. If this is not taken into account communities will not look good within a few years of them being built. Place making also has to be inclusive and accommodate the interests of all the residents. In particular children as well as youths are often forgotten in the process. We must not forget that children also have a democratic right to space. Accordia achieves this brilliantly.
Design and layout has got to be taken into account in creating sustainable communities with the range of housing sizes and tenures that is needed to ensure social sustainability. So we need to accommodate one and two person households, families and the elderly, and both those who can afford to buy and those who cannot. Mixed-tenure housing and the way in which housing is integrated is very important in creating sustainable communities. We don’t want the segregation between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ that created so many problems in the past.
Communities need schools, as well as community and recreational facilities. As well as creating these facilities we also need to ensure places in themselves are attractive. Landscaping is important – people enjoy living in green environments that bring people together to create a sense of community. Fundamentally they are nicer places to live.
Our society is becoming increasingly concerned with the energy efficiency agenda so homes must be more energy and water efficient and use eco-friendly building materials. Wherever we can we need to include eco parks, as well as parks where people can play. Moving on from Accordia, the new play environment at Great Notley in Braintree, another of our new community projects has dramatically increased the amount of people who are visiting and enjoying the country park which was created as part of the development.
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14 October 2008
The Stirling Prize - a first for a housing development
I was absolutely delighted that Accordia, our scheme in Cambridge won the Stirling Prize on Saturday night. I was also a little surprised as it wasn't strongly backed in the betting. I know there are some colleagues who wished they'd put £10 on it! The RIBA Stirling Prize is the most highly acclaimed architectural award, and this is the first time it has ever been won by a residential development, so it is a great achievement for the Accordia team.
To win such a prestigious award is testament to the hard work and dedication of everyone involved. Many congratulations to our team led by Chris Crook and assisted, prior to her retirement, by Trisha Gupta, and to the external team of architects lead by Fielden Clegg Bradley with Maccreanor Lavington and Alison Brooks Architects, and the landscape architects Grant Associates.
This is a very welcome and much needed boost for the residential property industry, which is facing tremendous challenges at the moment. Accordia is a landmark development for Countryside Properties and for it to beat off competition from other highly acclaimed buildings across Europe is fantastic.
Ellis Woodman in the Daily Telegraph and Edwin Heathcote in the FT have written some interesting pieces on the Stirling Prize which you might like to look at.
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Information correct as at 22/06/2010