Dispatches from Housing 2024: day three
A round-up of the most important headlines from the final day of the Housing 2024 conference. Photography by Guzelian
On the final day of Housing 2024, Inside Housing published its investigation into in-person homelessness approaches, which highlights the impacts of the housing and homelessness crisis. The final session of the conference heard about how the next government can address it.
Moving on from day two, delegates heard concerns about the usefulness of the tenant satisfactions measures (TSMs) and what the next government might mean for the sector, and Inside Housing announced the winners of its 40 Under 40 list.
READ MORE
Investment in the sector
Kicking off the final day of the conference was a panel on precisely who is investing what in the affordable housing sector – and why.
Speakers took a packed audience through a range of developments their organisations have invested in, looking to shed further light on the role played by institutional investors.
Projects included Miller’s Quay at Wirral Waters, which has received £130m in investment from the Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) and claims to be the UK’s largest regeneration project.
Walworth Village in Southwark, developed by Dorrington, was another example, along with The Eades in Walthamstow, backed by Long Harbour.
Hayley Rees, managing director of PIC Capital, told delegates: “One of the great changes that’s happening at the moment in the pensions industry is that what you’re seeing, and what you’ll see over the next 10 years, is £600bn coming out of defined benefit pension schemes.
“£200bn of that will be invested in UK infrastructure. It’s about how we can facilitate that investment into UK infrastructure.”
The consumer regulation regime: what have we learned so far?
Shortly after this on the main stage, the conference heard from panellists on the consumer-focused regulation regime, which came into full effect this year. Jamie Ratcliff, chief communities and sustainability officer at Sovereign Network Group (SNG), was quite critical of the TSMs, which he said “don’t tell you how good your services are”, while there is a risk they will “massively crowd out a whole load of useful activity that could be happening”.
During that session, John Harris, chair of Cornwall Housing Tenants Forum, said that the regulator should use the TSM data to monitor the amount of talent participation and involvement, “our key role in decision-making”.
“There isn’t enough broad tenant involvement as there should be, and I think TSMs could well highlight this fact,” Mr Harris said.
Tenant engagement is a huge part of the new consumer regulation regime.
How can social landlords engage younger residents?
“It’s so important we don’t make assumptions, that we actually ask young people, what do they want from housing?” said Meghan Roach, director of operations at New Horizons Youth Centre.
She was speaking during a session on engaging and supporting younger residents and care leavers.
Kara Davies, a young Metropolitan Thames Valley resident and peer researcher at Partnership for Young London, said that young people are often “the invisible group”. Their research found that half of young residents would like to sit on a youth board, and they want young people to be counted as separate stakeholders.
Her co-researcher, 17-year-old Hyde resident Theresa Okolo, emphasised that youth engagement should be clearly taken on board, funded and actioned, and that young people should be reimbursed and gain skills from their contributions.
No Help to Buy?
On the main stage, David Orr, chair of Clarion, lambasted Rishi Sunak’s plan to revive Help to Buy, saying that every penny of public money that went into the original scheme was wasted.
“The price of housing went up by exactly the same amount as the value of the subsidy that went into Help to Buy,” he said. “And yet, some people who were able to take advantage of it are going to be trapped in repaying debts that are bigger than they had anticipated.”
He added: “Every time we have subsidised demand in the housing market… it has put prices up.”
Mr Orr was joined by David Walker, Bishop of Manchester, for a panel discussion on the recent Homes for All report published by Nationwide and the Church of England, which called for a committee to work with the government on its housing goals.
The bishop said that the role of housing minister “should not be a brief that’s for someone who’s on the way up”, or “a sop for a party loyalist”.
“We need housing at the heart of government,” he added.
The closing session was hopeful that we might have a housing secretary who will last longer than two months – perhaps even the whole election cycle.
‘Don’t hold your breath’
The election special session heard from experts discussing what (if the polls are to be believed) a Labour government will mean for housing.
Toby Lloyd, who has worked as an advisor on housing and regeneration to local councils, housing associations, developers and the mayor of London, before spending seven years as head of policy at Shelter, said not to expect much immediately.
“[The new government] will still be dealing with the same challenges, the same issues, the same basic conditions,” he said.
He said he has heard people say that because Labour pledged to build 1.5 million homes, “that means they’ll give us huge amounts of grants to build social housing”.
“I wouldn’t hold your breath for too long on that one,” he said.
Mr Lloyd warned that there is “a lot of tension” in the manifesto pledges, and told delegates to “take a step back” and “don’t obsess about single lines of detail”.
He said that when reading the Labour manifesto, it is about reading the “signal, not the noise”.
“I would say it comes down to yes, definitely building more homes, clear ambition to get more homes built. And what is a genuine novelty, a willingness to accept that will mean hard choices on land use, on planning, on the green belt,” he said.
Mr Lloyd said there is a “strong recognition that there isn’t going to be a huge amount of new money”.
“I think the signal is fairly clear that they are not planning a massive surrender on the planning system either, [with] very strong commitments to affordable housing, quality, to Section 106.
“So if you think there’s a contradiction in all that, you’re not wrong. There is definitely at the very least a tension.”
He said there are “three optimistic ways of looking at all this”. One is that Labour’s “sensible” approach could bring stability and its focus on growing the economy depends on building more homes.
Finally, he said: “The new towns model for public leadership, for the public good, using private money to deliver at scale is probably the one part of it that makes all the other bits fit together.”
Michael Crick, broadcaster and journalist, said he thinks that the 1.5 million figure for housebuilding is a “rather dangerous” and “tricky” target. “Especially when you think the next parliament might be four years, not five,” he said.
Asked about the first thing he would like to see done by the new government to address the housing and homelessness crisis, Mr Lloyd said: “Proper integration between departments at the most senior ministerial level… Because you cannot fix the housing problem unless you have the Treasury, the Department for Work and Pensions, the transport department, all working together. At the moment they all operate in complete silos and it’s very, very difficult to really fix anything.”
Mr Crick said that the “most urgent priority” is to “get the new planning laws through”.
“Because remember, the people… in the more rural constituencies that are likely to pick up, that are in a way the political frontline for the next five years, because they have the seats on the edge, and they’re the source of potential rebellion and dissent.
“And so while… the MPs are docile and don’t really know what’s going on… get the legislation through quick.”
The panellists were also asked: “Do you think we’ll actually manage to have a housing minister that lasts the full term?”
The answers were “yes” and “yes”. We can only dream.
And let us end with some guaranteed positive news: Inside Housing announced its 40 Under 40 winners. Here is the list of 40 outstanding housing professionals who are shaping the future of the sector, and are under the age of 40.
