We have a housing crisis. There are an appalling number of homeless people living in temporary accommodation, a private rented sector that is insecure, expensive and is often poor quality. Many people can’t achieve their aspirations of owning their own home and we are building nowhere near enough social homes. This crisis feeds into poor health outcomes, limits the life chances of children and impedes economic development. Nearly everyone would agree with this, and it is great to see that providing more social, affordable and sustainable homes is a priority in the new programme for government.
Contrary to popular wisdom the planning system has the potential to be a driver rather than an obstacle to get more homes built. Equally importantly the planning system can also be an enabler to get the right type of homes built and in the right places. Critical to this will be the new local development plans. When local government was reformed a decade ago planning was transferred to the council, and each council started a process of creating local development plans for their borough. For various reasons a process that was meant to take a few years has turned into a marathon but now a decade later we are beginning to see the fruits of this labour. Seven councils have now adopted plan strategies and a further two have published draft plan strategies for consultation. On housing we are seeing, really for the first time here, planning policies that relate to the type of homes that should be built.
For housing professionals and for us in Co-Ownership there are two very positive developments. The need for most residential developments to deliver ‘affordable’ housing and the assumption that nearly all residential development will be mixed tenure. Of the adopted plan strategies there is a consistent approach that says that planning permission will be granted for residential development on sites greater than a certain size where a minimum number of units are provided as affordable housing. It’s usually 20% affordable homes, although this is not consistent across all councils. Related to this there is a policy that developments will have a mix of private and affordable homes – mixed tenure. These policies should ensure that new developments deliver homes that are affordable for everyone. It should deliver affordable housing that wouldn’t be delivered otherwise. Ensuring that developments are mixed tenure will better create more sustainable communities and reduce the disadvantages and stigma of large mono tenure social housing.
For Co-Ownership our customers should have a wider range of homes to choose from and better quality more energy efficient homes. The process we have agreed with the councils is that Council and the Housing Executive agree how many Co-Ownership home are needed in the development. The developer will build and market these homes as being only available through Co-Ownership. During the marketing period if a customer is identified they apply to Co-Ownership in the normal way and at the end of the marketing period if the home has not sold through Co-Ownership, then the developer would be required to offer affordable homes through alternative mechanisms. It’s early days but we are beginning to see a pipeline of homes through this approach and it has been well received by developers.
This new approach to delivering affordable housing has its challenges. The planning system now interacts with housing policy in a way it never has before resulting in the need for a greater understanding of for example the definition ‘affordable’ housing. Unlike in other parts of the UK and Ireland local government here has very little direct responsibility for housing and to make the new policies successful we will need to see better joined up working between central and local government.
From Co-Ownership’s perspective it is crucial that developments are designed with affordable homes in mind from the start and that the new homes being built will meet our criteria – essentially starter homes under a certain value. That’s why we are always keen to engage with developers prior to planning being submitted.
Despite the challenges I’m very positive about the new local development plans and the positive impact they can have on building new homes. If we get it right, we will deliver more homes, more affordable homes, and create successful vibrant communities.
