All of the major parties are agreed on the need for an increase in new homes and began to set out their stalls at the autumn party conferences. But as Polling Day draws nearer, the details of the what, where, when, how and who are beginning to emerge.
The Conservatives’ ‘Starter Homes’ policy proposes 100,000 new homes will be built on brownfield sites across England over the next five years. They want first-time buyers in England under the age of 40 to be able to buy a house at 20% below the market rate. Nine local authorities, 16 volume housebuilders and 15 smaller building firms have signalled support for the initiative but lenders may be concerned about the plan to restrict the re-sale of a Starter Home at an open market value for between five and 15 years.
But a plan for just 100, 000 new homes is a long way from the stated vision of David Cameron’s new housing guru, Alex Morton. He has said he’d like to see 1.5m new homes by 2020 and a new garden city, so further proposals could be on the cards.
Nick Clegg says the Lib Dems will build 300,000 homes a year if voted in, with five garden cities (50,000 homes) to be built along what he terms ‘the brainbelt of Britain’ – a new railway line running between Oxford and Cambridge. Treasury secretary Danny Alexander has added that central government should be given the power to build new homes in both the private market and social housing sector too.
But the coalition parties’ talk of reforming local planning and the land market has fallen short of championing the innovative construction techniques that could help us to crack on with building in volume. And without that reassurance, apart from a few leading lights such as Leeds Building Society, lenders will remain hesitant.
The assurance provided through BOPAS (Building Off-Site Property Assurance Scheme) does feature in the ‘Lyons Housing Review,’ commissioned by Ed Miliband. The report’s recommendations, which have been accepted by the Labour Party, outline a range of measures to help the party fulfil its pledge to deliver 200,000 new homes each year by 2020, including new towns and garden cities. The planned total is shared between volume housebuilders (101,100), SME housebuilders (25,000), custom/self-build (15,000), Institutional PRS (8,700), Housing Associations and Local Authorities (50,200).
Chairman Sir Michael Lyons claims that modern manufacturing methods could be applied more systematically and could potentially contribute up to 60,000 of those homes, as well as creating more jobs in constructing homes that could achieve environmental sustainability, hard economics, and architectural merit.
All three parties have had a bash at the what, the Torys have flagged up the who, the Lib Dems have thought about the where and Labour have endorsed the how. What’s missing is when do we start? That should be now.
