It has long been indicted that the Government target of 300,000 new homes a year by the middle of the 2020s is going to be a hard one to meet and now there is even more evidence suggesting this is the case.
It is not just about getting the land but it is not a good sign that an official report from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCL) confirms that the sale of public land for housing has not met targets.
Although over 40,000 homes have been brought to market on public land sold through both the current and previous Public Land for Housing programmes, this is just 24% of the target set, and while many more thousands of homes are due to be constructed this year, the programme will not reach the target to release land for 160,000 homes by the end of March 2020 which was set in 2015.
The document says that the MHCLG, other Government departments, the Office of Government Property (OGP) and Homes England are now working collaboratively to enhance the programme delivery.
Housing Minister Kit Malthouse said that there will also be a longer term approach to ensure there is a sustainable land pipeline to support the Government’s housing ambitions. In doing so, the programme is considering how to ensure that barriers to development are identified and overcome, including identifying and disposing of land, to bringing greater certainty over the timing and delivery of homes.
ëWe need more new house builders, and existing builders to do more if we are to meet our housing supply ambitions. We also need to see greater innovation in the way homes are constructed, Malthouse said in the report.
So, you have to wonder if he has read the new report by the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) which was commissioned by his department. It says that almost 200,000 workers will be needed in the construction industry by 2025 if the Government’s target of is to be met, a rise of 40%, or 24,000 new workers a year.
The report does not say where these construction workers will come from which is interesting as there are acute shortages in many skilled areas and the industry has already warned that Brexit is having an adverse effect on recruitment.
The report does, however, say that the number needed falls substantially if new construction methods are adopted. But it also says that there is currently limited information available on the impact of MMC on the overall workforce skills requirements.
It suggests that one of the main occupations in demand would be bricklayers, whose availability is already a concern for the sector. An increase in homes built based on scaling up of existing build types would exacerbate those concerns. The training rate of around 3,000 learners per year achieving bricklaying competence qualifications in England, appears to be insufficient at the moment, and demand for an extra 2,000 bricklayers per year would require training rates to possibly double in volume to bridge the gap between demand and supply.
Meanwhile there is concern about the quality of all these new homes that are being built now and in the future. Few of us cannot have seen the regular reports in the press about new homes with major snagging issues, and worse. The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) is now calling for new legislation that would force Ministers to make sure that all new housing meets 10 quality, safety and place making principles that collectively constitute a decent home.
Principles put forward in the organisation’s draft Healthy Homes Bill include a requirement that new housing is built to be safe from the risk of fire, includes adequate living space and is located within a short walk of children’s play spaces.
The call for this new legislation is a response to research the TCPA undertook with University College London (UCL), which in one case study found that, using permitted development rights, a developer had increased the number of flats in a building by 33% upon what was declared within their prior approval application.
The latest industry report says that house builders are continuing to invest in land and getting new sites approved despite the wider political and economic uncertainty surrounding Brexit and are committed to quality.
The housing pipeline report from the Home Builders Federation and Glenigan, points out that housing supply has increased by 78% in the past five years with 222,000 homes added to the housing stock last year but whilst the level of increase is unprecedented, the total is still some way short of the number of homes the country needs to be building.
The report suggests further increases in supply will be delivered some uncertainties remain as it is still taking far too long for permissions to be processed by local authorities to the point where builders can actually start on site.
The industry is keen to work with central and local Government to ensure that local authority planning departments have sufficient resources to deal with the increased level of applications being submitted and there lies the horcrux. You can increase the amount of land, you can commit to quality and you can try to employ more workers but if it all stalls at the planning stage then targets are just nonsensical.
