Why one 120-home scheme has taken us 10 years, and we’re still not finished

And, before readers jump to conclusions, our experience of the local authority planning team was excellent. They were consistent, responsive and prompt in all the exchanges and this part of the ongoing process was by some way the least painful.

I realise some of the events that led to the non-delivery of these “much-needed” (aren’t they all) homes are in the once-in-a-generation box, making it an extreme example. Nevertheless, housing schemes continue to face significant challenges which we urgently need to address if we are going to get anywhere near the target set.

Following our initial planning consent in 2017, having been appointed in 2014, we worked our way through tender design and contract negotiation as the fallout from the decision to vote to leave the European Union (EU) rippled through politics and the construction industry. 

“A war in Ukraine, Trussonomics and yet more macro-economic chaos inflated the contract sum to complete the project well beyond the means of our client”

Despite my personal view – one shared by a decent proportion of the UK population – that this was a terrible decision, we consoled ourselves that at least some certainty would create confidence.

Little did we know that several years of divisive politics would ensue. Politicians tried to extract us from the EU while at the same time wanting to be seen not to renege on commitments made to those who supported the Leavers.

Having steered our project through this quagmire, steadily resolving technical and logistics approval from Network Rail to build near high-frequency lines, the terms of final funding were falling into place.

By now it was February 2020, three years since we secured planning consent, and we allowed ourselves to be cautiously optimistic that a new prime minister, in the shape of Boris Johnson, might bring stability. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and everything paused.

After a year’s hiatus, we broke ground in 2021, with a renegotiated building contract. Progress was good for 12 months and then the tell-tale signs of contractor insolvency started to surface, as the labour force dwindled and the programme slipped. Sure enough, the contractor went under in May 2023, leaving its supply chain out of pocket and exposed.

A war in Ukraine, Trussonomics and yet more macro-economic chaos inflated the contract sum to complete the project well beyond the means of our client. 

So where are we today? And what lessons can we take from our experience of the past 10 years?

We are now waiting for a decision on a revised planning application that will add enough homes to the site to make the scheme stack up once again. But while we have a new government with a large majority and seemingly a desire to deliver homes at scale, we continue to face significant challenges.

The recent demise of the tier 1 contractor ISG shows the knife edge on which much of the industry is still balancing. The knock-on effect on the solvency of the supply chain could echo for a number of years, reducing building capacity even further.

“I don’t envy the task of addressing the complexity of the challenge, but the long-term viability of our industry has to be paramount to achieve quality and therefore quantity”

The survival of these businesses is reliant on work, and soon. The advent of the gateway approval process, particularly for high-risk buildings, does inhibit this. As reported by this publication, over 80% of applications submitted this year remain undetermined – this is more delay and more uncertainty. 

Similar to safety, decarbonisation is critical, but the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard and Future Homes Standard compound the pressure on design teams, clients and contractors at an already difficult time.

The delivery of 1.5 million homes was never going to be possible solely in dense urban environments like Plevna Crescent, but these locations have a significant part to play in stitching new homes into communities in the most sustainable way.

I don’t envy the task of addressing the complexity of the challenge, but the long-term viability of our industry has to be paramount to achieve quality and therefore quantity. We’ve all seen the horrific and heartbreaking stories of people living in cold, damp and insecure homes. We have a chance to not repeat the mistakes of the past – let’s seize it. 

In the meantime, we’ll be trying really hard to deliver those 120 homes for people in Haringey. By 2027 – 13 years after we started the project – they’ll deserve them!

Matthew Chamberlain, founding director, Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt