The Housing Forum

This is a nice write up of an our forthcoming Housing Partnership Summit next Thursday (6 Feb) with Newlon Housing Trust. We're looking forward to hearing more about the development of the Emirates Stadium to provide 700 new homes, with 352 affordable, and fire safety work on existing homes. With thanks to Symon Sentain BA PGDip MA CIHM FRSA AoU ACIOB.  https://lnkd.in/e4AqtHwK

We're recruiting! We're looking for a new Corporate Services Executive - to support our team Do share. https://lnkd.in/eNKTUnq9

We're recruiting! We're looking for a new Corporate Services Executive - to support our team Do share. https://lnkd.in/eNKTUnq9

In this episode we visit East Barnwell, where Cambridge City Council wants to build 120 new homes, a community centre, library and other commercial units in the city’s most deprived ward. What’s stopping it? Among other things, worries about falling between the end of one Affordable Homes Programme and the start of another, says Benedict Binns, Assistant Director for Development. Binns lists a raft of requests that would boost the Council’s delivery programme, including more flexible Homes England funding, discounted borrowing, collaboration with other parts of the Combined Authority of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, and fast track planning in return for over-delivering. “We should be rewarding developers that are above policy,” he says. “That would drive up standards and delivery.” Watch the full video here: https://lnkd.in/er59qq6d Thanks to founding sponsor Red Loft and this episode’s co-sponsor Hill Group UK, and to Cambridge City Council for taking part. The Housing Forum Cambridge Investment Partnership #1p5mnewhomes #cambridgecouncil #housingdelivery #councils #cambridgeinvestmentpartnership

The Housing Forum has responded to the Government's consultation on the Right to Buy. The Right to Buy policy reduces the supply of affordable housing: - When a home is sold it will never again become available for a new household in need of social housing. It will never be possible to replace the homes that are sold on a one for one, like for like basis, meaning that the Right to Buy causes a gradual erosion of the housing that is most directly available to relieve homelessness and housing need. - The presence of the Right to Buy deters councils from building new homes. Many of our members are keen to build new council homes, but are forced to set up complex legal structures in order to avoid risking losing them – in some cases within months of the first let. The Housing Forum’s view is therefore that the Right to Buy should be abolished. We are, however, supportive of the reforms proposed because they will slow the loss of social housing stock. We set out our proposals for reform in our paper Reforming the Right to Buy last year (https://lnkd.in/euNQmwFK), and are pleased to see that some of our suggestions have been picked up in the consultation document. The main points we raise in the consultation response are: - Eligibility criteria should be tightened so as to ensure that the scheme is used by its intended beneficiaries (longer term tenants who intend to remain living in the home and are capable of sustaining homeownership) - Discounts should be reduced, to a maximum of 20% - Councils should be given discretion to exclude properties from the scheme, such as those in particularly short supply locally. - Newbuild housing, built after these changes are made should be permanently excluded. - Councils should be free to use the receipts however they see fit, to replace the housing or invest in existing homes. https://lnkd.in/e3nCCj-h

Delivering 1.5 million homes in the UK: What is stopping us?   From skills shortages to supply chain issues, what problems are you experiencing?   The Housing Forum Futures Network are looking to collaborate. Work with us to tackle the pinch points in housing delivery.   There will be plenty of ways to get involved. Watch this space!    We want to hear from you. Let’s talk solutions at Futures.Network@HousingForum.org.uk

With significant delays in Gateway Two approvals throwing project timelines and budgets into turmoil, how can the industry move forward under the Building Safety Act 2022? A recent Housing Forum roundtable, held in partnership with BPTW, took a close look at the role of the Principal Designer under the Building Safety Act 2022, diving into some key challenges like ensuring competency and making registration processes more effective. Industry professionals brought their perspectives to the table, raising concerns about the hurdles in registering Principal Designers, securing insurance, and dealing with the Act’s impact on existing buildings. The group also explored various registers and standards for assessing Principal Designer competency, including those from RIBA and CIAT, and stressed the importance of maintaining integrity in manufacturer products. The roundtable wrapped up with a clear message: there’s an urgent need for better guidance and stronger collaboration across the housing construction industry to tackle these challenges effectively. You can read the full report now:

Housing Forum members Andy Tookey, Adam Pannell, MRICS, Michael Daniels, and Mike De'Ath with Policy Director, Anna Clarke met with Treasury officers today to discuss our report on The Costs of Building a House https://lnkd.in/eUkW7WMy We discussed recent planning reforms, what more Government could do to tackle rising costs of housebuilding and meet their ambition of 1.5m new homes, and how The Housing Forum can help.

The Housing Forum welcomes the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) announced today (https://lnkd.in/ea4Qk23q) and believes that the new approach will help to deliver much-needed new homes across England.   Stephen Teagle, Chair of the Board of The Housing Forum said: As the cross-sector body for the housing sector, we are aware of the multitude of challenges involved in scaling up housebuilding. However, the need for new housing has never been higher, and we welcome the Government's ambitious approach and clear rhetoric that there can be no excuse for failing to deliver much-needed new homes.   We are particularly pleased to see the new higher housing targets and the measures announced today to focus these strongly where housing is least affordable. Together with a less rigid approach to greenbelt the new approach should help to ensure there is sufficient land allocated for housing. These new supply side measures are welcome.   There is also an urgent need for investment in skills and training for the workforce required. And to bring forward the social housing that's needed most urgently by people facing homelessness, the government also needs to increase grant funding for the Affordable Homes Programme, and help social landlords to invest their own resources via certainty of future rental income and access to the Building Safety Fund. .   The Housing Forum's Roadmap to 1.5 million new homes (https://lnkd.in/eejY2uQG) sets out what else the housing sector believes the government needs to do to deliver its ambitions. 

The Insight Report from this event is now available from our website, here: https://lnkd.in/ed_vRTcW