Boost Key Worker Access To Affordable Housing, Says Think Tank

Policy Exchange calls for police and other key public sector staff to get access to cheaper homes Rules governing key worker housing should be overhauled to give those working in the police, emergency services and state schools a better chance to live in affordable housing near their place of work. Centre-right think tank the Policy Exchange has called for a series of reforms including the introduction of a new key worker housing initiative which would support frontline public sector workers including police officers, nurses, teachers and firefighters find an affordable home. Read more on Housing Today.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/boost-key-worker-access-to-affordable-housing-says-think-tank/5102650.article

Jenrick Defends Permitted Development

Housing secretary Robert Jenrick has defended policies allowing developers to bypass council planning departments while admitting that “some” homes delivered have been poor quality. Speaking at an event held by think tank Policy Exchange in London, Mr Jenrick argued permitted development rights have been “a great force in bringing new properties onto the housing market”. But he said the MHCLG is examining why some homes delivered through the policy have not been up to scratch. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/jenrick-defends-permitted-development-but-admits-some-poor-quality-homes-delivered-63831

Jenrick Says More Than 300,000 Homes ‘May Be Needed’

New housing minister Robert Jenrick has re-committed the government to building 300,000 homes a year and suggested the number might even need to be revised upwards. In a speech outlining major reforms to the planning system he said: “Our 300,000 target by the mid-2020s may not be ambitious enough. “To do this we have to embrace technology, the technology being brought forward for the digital age to make homes built faster. But we also have to renew our enthusiasm for transforming quality design in the supply of homes so we can build a greener and a better Britain,” he told an event hosted by Policy Exchange and Create Streets. Read more on the Housing Today website.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/jenrick-says-more-than-300000-homes-may-be-needed/5102340.article

Report Calls For Improvements In Housing For Older People

A new Policy Exchange report reveals recommendations on improving the housing market for an ageing population. With housing continuing to race up the political agenda, a focus on young people’s experience of the housing market is often overlooked, the report finds. Compared to that of 11.9 million in 2016, projected numbers of 17.7 million living aged 65 and over will be seeking greater housing demands from the government, with a focus on providing better quality homes to improve people’s quality of life. The report further states that retirement housing needs to be a more desirable option and private providers should acknowledge the gap in the market for attractive retirement living. Download the report, Building for the Baby Boomers, from the Policy Exchange website.

https://policyexchange.org.uk/publication/building-for-the-baby-boomers/

Residents Should Design New Homes To Tackle Nimbyism

Residents should help design new houses being built in their neighbourhood, according to a report aimed at tackling ‘nimbyism’. An investigation into the housing crisis, co-written by a former Newham Mayor Sir Robin Wales, believes giving local people the power to dictate how developments look would help increase building rates – particularly in the south east. The report – produced by the influential Policy Exchange think-tank – calls for all councils to produce a “design and style” guide for new builds within 18 months, following consultations with residents and locally-based architects. Read more on the Huff Post website.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/residents-should-design-new-homes-to-tackle-nimbyism-says_uk_5b294125e4b0a4dc992183f7

Large Landlords Should Raise Rents To Build

The largest housing associations should be allowed to raise rents in exchange for agreeing to build more homes, an influential thinktank has said. A paper by Policy Exchange said the government should do housing deals with associations that own or manage more than 4,000 homes which would give the greater financial freedom to enable them to build more, particularly properties for sale. The report said the five-year deals could involve an association agreeing to build 3% to 4% more homes including a significant number of shared ownership and market sale properties. In return, the government would permit the housing association to raise its rents by up to the CPI level of inflation or to simply avoid the rent cut. Download the paper from the Policy Exchange website.

Housing Bill Signals End Of The Road For Affordable Housing

The government’s housing and planning bill has reached report stage, and has been debated in the Commons amid protests, and concern from social housing professionals. Some protesters blockaded the Policy Exchange and Localis thinktanks in protest over previous reports from the two organisations in support of a number of measures now being included in the housing bill, particularly the sale of housing stock that, according to the protesters, will force the poorest out of expensive areas like London and could herald “the end of any prospect of secure or affordable homes for ordinary people”. Other protestors planned to assemble outside parliament to voice their opposition to the bill and its effect on tenants. Housing experts across the country have expressed reservations and concerns about various aspects of the bill. Read more on the Guardian website.

Think Tank Issues Association Privatisation Warning

Privatising housing associations would be “the most obvious” government reaction to £60bn of debt being added to the national balance sheet, an influential think tank has warned. Chris Walker, head of housing and planning at Policy Exchange, said nationalisation of housing associations followed by a state sell-off into the private sector could become “a serious option” if the Office for National Statistics (ONS) decides to reclassify housing associations as public bodies. Mr Walker said: “The government does not want to be in a position where it is keeping that debt on its balance sheet. If it is relaxed, it must feel it has got potential to move that money off the balance sheet, which suggests it has got a plan.” Read more on Inside Housing.

Bashing Buy-To-Let Landlords Will Push up Rents

“Buy-to-let landlords have a huge advantage in the market as they can offset their mortgage interest payments against their income, whereas homebuyers cannot.” That’s how the chancellor explained his decision in the Budget to require that landlords effectively pay tax on their borrowings – their buy-to-let mortgage. But the chancellor has made a significant blunder: his ill-advised move will push up rents and hit the economy. The problem is that the chancellor’s comparison with homeowners is not correct. The day after the Budget, the IFS correctly said that “rental property is taxed more heavily than owner occupied property.” Even the Tories’ favoured think tank Policy Exchange has concluded that the tax system “massively favours home ownership.”  Unlike homeowners, landlords are taxed on rental income and capital gains. And the VAT system works against building new homes to rent by preferring home owner properties over rented housing. Read more on the City AM website.

Empowering Localism to Solve the Housing Crisis

More than 1 million new homes could be built over the next decade if each of the 353 councils in England built just one garden village of 3,000 new houses, according to a new report by Policy Exchange. The garden village concept is being proposed as an alternative to the edge of town development and as a variant of the garden city.  Local opposition to development can be overcome by devolving powers to set up new garden villages from Whitehall to councils, the report says. If councils do agree to build new garden villages sufficient to meet their housing need, they would, as a quid pro, be allowed to rule out having developments around existing communities forced on them through appeal. Read more on the Policy Exchange website.

Pressure To Slash Benefits outside Richer South-East

Policy Exchange says lowering the limit would reflect the difference in the cost of living – and save the nation’s coffers £100million a year. Piling pressure on the Government, the think-tank says the cap should be reduced by 10 per cent – to £23,400 – for those living in the rest of the UK. It comes ahead of a major piece of research this month examining how a future government could find further savings in the welfare budget. The Policy Exchange paper will also say that child benefit should be capped at four children and payments progressively reduced after the first child. It says the collective benefit changes would lead to savings of £1billion by 2020. Read more on the Daily Express website.

Cutting Benefits outside London Could Save Millions

The benefits cap should be lowered by 10 per cent for people living outside London and the South East to reflect the lower cost of living outside of those areas, a think-tank has proposed. Policy Exchange said lowering the limit to £23,400 for those living in the rest of the UK could save the UK Government £100 million a year. The right-leaning think tank, with close links to the Conservative Party, will spell out the plans in full in a major piece of research examining how a future government could find further savings in the welfare budget to be published later this month. The Policy Exchange paper will also say that child benefit should be capped at four children and payments progressively reduced after the first child. It says the collective benefit changes would lead to savings of £1 billion by 2020. Read more on the Policy Exchange website.

Independent Review Is Nothing of the Sort

The government has announced an "independent" review into how more social homes can be built. But how independent is it? The review will be led by Keith House and Natalie Elphicke, wife of Charlie Elphicke, the Conservative MP for Dover. She published a controversial report with the rightwing think-tank Policy Exchange back in 2010.Her report claimed that housing associations could raise £30 billion a year – and build 100,000 new homes – by raising money directly from pension funds, saving the taxpayer £5bn by relieving government of the need to invest in social housing. Keith House, meanwhile, is the Liberal Democrat leader of Eastleigh council with a strong track record on housing but who is equally recognised for sitting on as many committees as he possibly can. A scathing piece on the Conservative Home website questioned whether councillor House had the right attitude towards civic duty effectively accusing him of lining his pockets at the public's expense. Read more on 24dash.

Housing Crisis Is Worse Than Any of the Parties Are Prepared To Admit

In recent months, all three of the main parties have sought to demonstrate that they are responding to the housing crisis. Labour has pledged to build 200,000 homes a year by 2020 through the creation of new towns and garden cities. The Lib Dems have called for councils to be allowed to pool their borrowing limits in order to fund a major expansion of social housing. The Tories have launched Help to Buy, which, they claim, will stimulate supply as well as demand.  But for some idea of the extent to which all parties are still underplaying the extent of the crisis, it's worth reading the Policy Exchange report on the subject. As it notes, the UK needs a minimum of 1.5 million new homes from 2015 to 2020 simply to meet need, 300,000 a year. Around 221,000 new households are expected to be formed each year over this period and there is a significant backlog. Thus, even the target spoken of in Labour circles - a million in five years - falls short. Download a copy of the report from the Policy Exchange website.

New Homes at 'Lowest Level since Turn of the Century'

The number of new homes built in England has fallen for the fifth consecutive year to hit its lowest level since the turn of the century, according to official figures.  Fewer than 125,000 homes were added to the country's housing stock in the year to this April, 8% less than the year before and 100,000 less than at the peak of the housing market in 2007-8.  Lack of supply has been cited as a key reason for rising prices across the country. The Policy Exchange has said the UK needs to build 300,000 homes a year to keep prices and rents down, while Shelter has called for 250,000 more homes a year in England alone.  The CLG said new builds had fallen from 128,000 the previous year to 118,000 last year, while conversions last year added only just over 4,000 homes.  Download the latest figures from the Gov UK website.

Put Communities In Charge Of Planning Decisions, Conservatives Told

Planning decisions should be made by communities, rather than local or national government, to increase the supply of housing and reduce the pressure on the social housing sector, delegates at the Conservative party conference heard. Alex Morton, head of housing and planning at the Policy Exchange thinktank, said the planning system was broken down and that prescriptive regulations were constraining development. Instead of planning and housing orders being handed down by central or local government, decisions should be made by local communities. This would, he said, eliminate clashes with local people and ensure developments would be designed to add value to an area, rather than be imposed on communities against their will. Read more on the Guardian website.

High Rise Blocks Should Be Torn Down

High rise social housing blocks should be demolished to make way for low rise flats and terraced housing, an influential right-wing think tank has claimed. In a report, Create streets, Policy Exchange argues tower blocks lead to higher crime rates, weaker communities, and poorer health and educational achievement, and says they should be torn down.  The report says terraced streets can exceed the housing densities of most existing high-rise blocks, and tower blocks are expensive to build and maintain.  Download a copy of the report from the Policy Exchange website.

Quarter of A Million Homes Cut From Council Plans

English councils are planning to build 273,000 fewer homes since the coalition government’s abolition of regional planning which allowed authorities to ignore Labour’s top-down housing targets.  According to a report by the Policy Exchange there are 272,720 fewer homes in the planning system today than before the revocation of regional spatial strategies (RSS) in June 2010.  The report, called Planning for Less, finds that despite government assertions to the contrary, the decline in council plans for new homes will ultimately result in fewer homes being built. It says the decision to abolish RSS could contribute to the coalition presiding over the lowest peacetime level of housebuilding since the twenties, and that housebuilding levels will continue to fall unless significant changes to the planning system are made.  Download a copy of the report from the Policy Exchange website.

Free Up Green-Belt Land for Housing, Says Policy Exchange

Green-belt land in England should be freed up for new housing developments, according to a centre-right thinktank established by the new planning minister, Nick Boles. In a report which warns of a "failing cycle" on planning, Policy Exchange says releasing 2% of English land for development would allow for the building of an extra 8m homes.  Boles was appointed to the politically sensitive post of planning minister in the recent reshuffle as the government announced plans to relax planning regulations to underwrite new housebuilding to the tune of £10bn.  But the report by Policy Exchange, the thinktank established by Boles in 2002, warns that the coalition's plans do not go far enough and the government should be prepared to build on the green belt.  Read more on the Guardian website.

Housing 'Should Have Own Department'

The housing sector should have its own dedicated Whitehall department, according to the author of a controversial report into the management of affordable housing.  Alex Morton, a senior researcher at right-wing think tank Policy Exchange, said that ‘no one is responsible’ for housing and called on the government to use this September’s likely cabinet reshuffle to establish a stand-alone department.  He said that housing ‘sits unloved and forlorn’ in the CLG which he describes as ‘a Prescott style mishmash of various policies’, adding that ‘it certainly doesn’t exist to build more homes’.  Policy Exchange recently published Mr Morton’s report, urging councils and housing associations to sell off their most expensive stock fund new-build affordable housing.  He claimed that this could generate enough extra cash to build an additional 170,000 homes every year.  Read more on the Daily Telegraph website.