Bioregional’s Post

The Labour Party cannot allow another lost decade of poor standard housing in the interests of shareholder profits and the extractive economy, passing the increased cost of future proofing on to the homeowner makes no sense. I have lobbied about this issue for ten years and in particular with the development on the canal side at Stourbridge by Taylor Wimpey. "The builders said the rules were too onerous and would add to the cost of new homes. Delaying the rules meant they saved about £5,000 per home on average by not having to fit high-grade insulation, heat pumps, solar panels and other green technology. Their savings have come at a high cost to homeowners, however: the occupiers of the 1.5m new homes built since the rules were scrapped in 2015 will have to expensively retrofit their homes, at an average cost of £20,000 each." Homeowners in my opinion would have gladly paid the extra to future proof their homes or maybe Taylor Wimpey could have slightly reduced dividends? We need a more long term investment horizon. https://lnkd.in/ecFg8EDd

Wouldn't it be great if we all had to build to the same standards in all contexts? "Labour must resist housebuilders’ pleas to weaken green standards, experts say Government urged to enforce more stringent rules amid target to build 1.5m new homes this parliament Labour must stand firm against special pleading from housebuilders, who are likely to argue against fitting out new homes to stringent green standards, experts have warned.” #ukhousing #housebuilding #socialhousing #affordablehousing #urbanplanning https://lnkd.in/dQG_mN2N

We need to move away from the Green Belt being seen as a political football that can be used to score points against the opposition – whatever colour that may be – and consider instead that using our green belt to serve the communities who live there, taking into account their views, is an important part of both economic and social strategy. People need places to live and work – instead of seeing green belt development as an inherently bad thing, there needs to be clearer, localised guidance about when it can be considered the right thing. #greenbelt #planning #property #propertydevelopment #ruralplanning #housing #affordablehousing #ruralaffairs #ruralcommunities #aclandbracewell https://lnkd.in/edNHgNRG

A painfully slow planning system, no set house-building targets, changes to environmental rules, rising interest rates and COVID-19, have made the past few years difficult to navigate – especially for housebuilders and landowners wanting to bring forward residential development plans.   So, what’s the feeling among the land and property sector following Sir Keir Starmer’s speech at the Labour Party Conference? What opportunities will landowners and developers welcome and what challenges will they face if there is a change in government?   In a new thought-leadership article, Philip Bowern has analysed the Labour Leader’s pledges and explained why early engagement and steadfast communication will be vital if Britain is going to get back building, while KOR's Public Affairs Specialist Andrew Howard, AdCert PRCA stresses the need to create whole communities, not just new houses. Read it here: https://lnkd.in/eQ7MybrR #LabourPartyConference #Housebuilding #Government #Engagement #Communicaiton #PublicRelations 

As the UK charts its course under new leadership with the Labour Party's recent General Election win, our Principal of Sustainability Transformation, Marion Baeli, shares her thoughts on the party's proposed energy and climate policies with BE News: “The new Labour administration’s proposed policies for energy and climate are essential for the country to achieve its net zero ambition and help mitigate global warming, which includes the decarbonisation of the grid and the additional £6.6bn in home energy efficiency improvements. Nevertheless, these policies are not sufficient on their own, and must be paired up with a National retrofit plan that would include the insulation and ventilation of homes, to make a tangible difference for both the climate – considering that ~39% of the UK carbon emissions relate to the construction industry and 28% specifically to buildings in use – and the comfort of 27 million homes in the UK. Enhancing the ability of our housing stock to retain heat will lead to a lesser demand for infrastructure investment and provide occupants with multiple co-benefits such as better internal comfort, especially for low-income households who can’t afford to switch on their heating and ventilation systems and suffer the most from humidity and poor indoor air quality. As an industry, we look forward to working with the new government to decarbonise our built environment and improve housing conditions for future generations.” Follow the link below to read more reactions from industry leaders! https://lnkd.in/et72sXsW #Architecture #Retrofit #ClimateChange #Decarbonisation #FabricFirst 10 Design, part of Egis Group.

Labour's pledges to restore mandatory housebuilding targets and open up parts of the green belt for development undoubtedly resemble positive steps towards fixing Britain's dysfunctional housing system. Ultimately though, the proof will be in the pudding whether our new government can convert its promising rhetoric into action. Doing so is vital, not just for the future of the housing market, but for the nation's economic productivity as a whole.

Little bit more on the potential relaxation of restrictions to development on land designated #GreenBelt in order to help address the #housingcrisis. Seems to be a growing realisation (finally!) that Green Belt does not always mean valued landscape or land in an unsustainable location for new homes - often the very opposite! https://lnkd.in/eiMw5bqN

Needless to say these wild pledges fill me with dread. (Not only that, it's no different from what the Conservatives failed to do). New towns are very, very, very difficult to deliver. They would need very significant government funding. Immediate alarm bells here when Labour says it will be relying on the private sector. Well it isn't the private sector's job to deliver all the genuinely affordable housing and all the new town infrastructure that's needed. And the private sector never will. We will end up with giant housing estates. As always, I'll harp back to the North Essex Garden Towns. Two were rightly rejected on viability and sustainability grounds. The third one should have been but scraped through due to a dubious HIF bid. And hey, guess what, that third one is going ahead ever more compromised and the HIF bid doesn't cover the link road so it's a tiny access road. So what will happen is that a batch of local authorities/developers will cobble together huge sites for submission to Labour. There will be an excruciating planning process. Some rubbish will scrape through. And bingo, lots more unaffordable, car-dependent sprawl. I can't wait. https://lnkd.in/eQNDKfvZ

Here’s the dilemma: Should an ESG conscious house builder push to improve minimum environmental standards on new houses for the benefit of all…. Or, should an EBITDA-driven house builder lobby the new Labour Government to dilute green standards and therefore increase housing numbers (and profits)….? 🏡 or 💰 I guess you know what I think! 🤔 But schemes must be commercially viable. Construction costs are higher than ever due to record inflation, skills shortages, contamination etc and then S106 (Affordable Homes provision), CIL, off-site contributions, Biodiversity Net Gain, Nutrient Neutrality credits and more makes some sites commercially unviable. The variable cost that should drop is land. It’s the residual value. It’s should be calculated by working out what is left after everything else is paid. But due to the scarcity of allocated /consented, sites with planning approval, land values remain artificially high. Supply and demand…. Mark Twain was right: Buy land, they aren’t making it anymore… With more consented sites, more land is available from where responsible developers can deliver the homes we need. Let’s fix the planning system quickly! Interesting article below in The Guardian 👇 exploring this further. #sustainabilityleadership SDG 11 & 13

The speed of The Labour Party is commensurate with the urgency of the various crises they're tackling as Angela Rayner announces a fast track consultation to overhaul planning rules for affordable homes. Can we also have mandatory south facing 3-4kW of solar? We also need to upgrade existing affordable housing and move quicker on our older housing stock. Local authorities are too under resourced and lack a policy mandate to retrofit at pace. https://lnkd.in/gUJN-MbZ