Pocket Living

Our team went all out for Purple Tuesday this week with a purple-themed feast and outfits to match! 💜 We also took some time to pause and reflect, with a powerful talk from Harold on our charity this year, Men’s Minds Matter 🧠. For those who aren’t familiar, Purple Tuesday is all about making businesses more accessible for everyone. Every year, organisations from every sector make commitments to improve accessibility and inclusivity for disabled customers. It’s a day dedicated to real, positive change—and we’re proud to be part of it. #PurpleTuesday #MensMindsMatter #Accessibility #Inclusion #PocketLiving

Forest Road was awarded in the Medium Housing Development category at the Brick Awards 2024! The project was recognised by judges for its high quality and workmanship: "Beautiful looking building, the wet cast stonework complemented the tint of the clay bricks. Excellently constructed brickwork especially the window surrounds and stone heads!” - Judges Comment Congratulations to all involved: client Pocket Living, our contractor Legendre UK and extended team BD landscape architects, Whitby Wood, XCO2, Hive Curates, Boyer and WT (UK & Europe). A special mention to Michelmersh Brick Holdings PLC, supplier of Forest Road's beautiful bricks from Floren & Cie. Thank you to Brick Development Association (BDA) for hosting. Photo credits: Jack Hobhouse (Forest Road), IP Visuals (event photography) #brickawards24 #walthamforest #affordablehousing

We’re incredibly proud that Forest Road has been recognised as the Medium Housing Development of the Year at the Brick Awards, hosted by The Brick Development Association (BDA). Designed by Gort Scott and located in London’s Waltham Forest, Forest Road provides 90 affordable one-bedroom homes for first-time buyers on a repurposed site across from the iconic William Morris Gallery. "Beautiful looking building, the wet cast stonework complemented the tint of the clay bricks. Excellently constructed brickwork especially the window surrounds and stone heads!” A huge congratulations to everyone involved: Whitby Wood XCO2 WT (UK & Europe) Boyer BD landscape architects JGA, a Jensen Hughes Company Legendre UK Michelmersh Brick Holdings PLC

Pocket Living Woodside Park development looking resplendent yesterday in the autumn sunshine #AffordableHousing #DiscountedHomes

HTA’s recently completed Woodside Park for Pocket Living features 86 affordable homes located on a narrow brownfield site beside Woodside Park Station. The scheme offers local people a path to home ownership and is only available to first-time buyers who are living or working in Barnet. The apartments frame a central courtyard and feature exposed brick and concrete stair cores that look out towards surrounding parks. Bordered by Transport for London Northern Line to the east and residential gardens to the west, the courtyard design manages a 3m level change that slopes from north to south across the constrained site. The building’s façade features a hit-and-miss brickwork façade in a double-leaf monk bond pattern, a result of close collaboration between architect, contractor, and façade specialists. The design creates a soft, ecclesiastical quality of light within the communal areas that invites residents to engage with the spaces. Architecturally, the building’s rich red mottled brickwork and detailing echo the character of the adjacent locally listed St Barnabas Church. The uniform unit type lends order across the façade, enhanced by well-proportioned bays, soldier course banding on each level, and projecting header brickwork that adds depth and texture to the top floor. 📷 Kilian O'Sullivan #woodsideparkstation #affordablehousing #design #architecture #brickwork

Great progress being made by Pocket Living at their Sheepcote Road development in Harrow. Delivering homes for the ever important aspiring first time buyer, I look forward to visiting again when the development is complete. Thank you Jennifer Anson for scheduling and hosting the tour. Sian McIntyre Frances Cassidy Gajendra Gupta Sidney Wager Tom Gorman Sundeep Jadeja Andy Catchpole CeFA CeMAP Russell Cross Paul Rickard Fiona Haggett, FRICS

In this post from our Get SMEs Building Again series, we turn to New Zealand for a fresh perspective on planning committee processes, as highlighted by Grant Leggett (Boyer). Could the UK learn from New Zealand’s more streamlined and expert driven approach? 🤔 🏛️ The Challenge In the UK, planning committees are often flooded with minor applications, slowing down decisions on major projects. Reports for committee applications take up significant time and resources, leaving officers stretched thin. Moreover, committee members—usually local councillors—aren’t always equipped with the technical expertise required for complex decisions. This often results in rushed or uninformed choices, adding delays and costs. 🌏 The Kiwi Solution In New Zealand, only the largest and most contentious applications go to committee, which are not held regularly, but as needed. This system trusts planning officers to make the day-to-day decisions. Committees are smaller (3-5 members) and include technical experts in areas like urban design, heritage, or transport, alongside elected members. The chair is often an independent town planning professional. By focusing only on significant applications, this approach leads to faster, more informed decisions and reduces the bottlenecks seen in the UK system. 🔑 Could This Work in the UK? Grant suggests the UK might not adopt this approach wholesale, but it could certainly benefit from: • Less Frequent Committees – Deal only with the most important cases. • Expert-Led Committees – Include urban design or planning experts to guide elected members. • Improved Resource Allocation – Free up officer time for important projects, reducing delays. • These changes could address the slow decision-making currently hampering housing delivery and lead to better outcomes for all stakeholders. Read the full report here: https://shorturl.at/FMKgu 🔗

An interesting read by Joshua Oliver in the Financial Times @FT. There isn’t a housebuilding cartel but there is a huge imbalance between the volume housebuilders and the SME housebuilders. The see-saw is heavily weighted at one end and if government helps reset the see-saw by supporting SME developers there is a chance that the private sector can deliver the 200,000 homes the article refers to.   The SME sector is poised and able to significantly increase delivery and, more importantly, do so quickly. We don’t have the luxury of land banking so by supporting SMEs like Pocket Living you are not only rebalancing the sector and increasing delivery, you are also doing so as quickly as possible and as planning reforms work their way through the system, the pace should only accelerate. https://lnkd.in/enTvwDvW

This week we hosted our first ever FTB event at Pocket Living HQ! With the help of Anthony from Censeo Financial and Tracy from Lynch Hall & Hornby (and the fantastic team at Pocket, of course), we were able to cover all bases and answer all of our attendees' questions about buying their first home. #FirstTimeBuyers #HomesForLondoners #AffordableHousing

CBRE recent research on co-living highlights the same issue Pocket Living has been working to solve for 20 years. Namely, the market failure inherent in many large urban areas where young singes can’t afford to live despite being the lifeblood of those centres. In London this is especially acute with the number of studios and one-beds in the PRS sector decreasing 45% since 2020 and HMOs reducing by 28% in the same timeframe. This reiterates the need for more housing of all tenures – if we fail to house our City Makers, whether it be through home ownership, rentals, or alternative models, our cities will fail. https://lnkd.in/eVykxQ2J