Future Homes Commission Report

Lord Best Excerpts

Tuesday 4th December 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Best]

My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, for securing this debate and for her excellent opening speech. We have been blessed over the past few weeks with a string of important new reports on housing, of which the readable and sensible one from the Future Homes Commission, as described by the noble Baroness, is particularly valuable. For my sins, I have also read most of the others. In my five minutes, perhaps I could reflect on their messages and on overarching conclusions that can be drawn from all of them.

We have had four reports concentrating on the private rented sector, in particular on the role of lettings agents, from the Property Ombudsman, Shelter, the RICS and Which?. They all argue for more consumer protection in the private rented sector, which has grown so dramatically in recent years. We have also had the annual monitoring report on the state of the nation’s housing from the Chartered Institute of Housing, Shelter and the National Housing Federation. I fear that its traffic lights are nearly all red, or at best amber, confirming that housing remains a highly problematic issue, particularly for those who rely on housing benefit.

Another report during the last few weeks has come from the Smith Institute, looking at how local authority pension funds could finance local investment. This proposition has been taken forward in the Future Homes Commission report, which notes that just £10 billion of the £180 billion invested in these pension funds could finance a serious housebuilding programme. Reporting for the Government, Sir Adrian Montague has looked at channelling institutional investment into market renting; that is, “Build to Let” schemes, which would create new homes for rent with professional management. The Building and Social Housing Foundation also launched a report on building more homes for market renting. It notes that the most likely partners for institutional investors are not the private developers, since they have little experience of the rented sector, but those large housing associations which are willing to diversify into market renting in addition to—but not in substitution for—their role in providing affordable housing.

Meanwhile, a report from the Chartered Institute of Housing, the National Federation of ALMOs and the Association of Retained Council Housing, Let’s Get Building, points out that councils could themselves address the need for new affordable homes for rent if they were given more headroom to borrow to build. Despite the recent localising reforms to the housing revenue account, local authorities still cannot act like a housing association and borrow prudently against their considerable housing assets.

The last report I have time to mention—and what a flurry of new reports there has been in these past few weeks—is the All-Party Group on Housing and Care for Older People’s new offering Housing our Ageing Population: Plan for Implementation. This adds an extra dimension to the others by pointing out the huge advantages of concentrating on building high-quality apartments for our older population. Retirement housing has highly significant benefits in terms of health, well-being and the relief of loneliness, while making big savings for NHS and social care budgets. Perhaps best of all, building to meet these needs brings thousands of family homes, some in need of the input of energetic young households, on to the market, multiplying the total number accommodated.

Putting the Future Homes Commission’s excellent document alongside these other contributions, what overarching conclusions might one reach? First, all are agreed, as are the Government, not least the very committed Minister for Planning, Nick Boles, that we need a huge increase in housebuilding to meet the nation’s needs. Secondly, in relation to the wider economy, these reports all highlight the direct contribution to GDP made by constructing new homes. If there was a return to the level of building of just a few years back, even though that was not keeping pace with the demand from new households, it would add 1% to GDP, taking us out of recession at a stroke.

Thirdly, all agree that local councils are the central players for housing provision, not only in their role as local planning authorities but as primary partners with housing associations and developers and as direct providers themselves. It may well be local authority pension funds that will provide the extra capital for housebuilding needed during this continuing credit crunch.

Finally, we need an emphasis on good design as the key to ensuring all this investment lasts and that new development gains public acceptance. Perhaps this is of the greatest importance in relation to housing for older people. Unless the design of new accommodation means plenty of light, space and air, with big windows and balconies, storage space and good ventilation, older people will never be attracted to right-size and leave their family-sized accommodation, even though it may well be increasingly difficult to manage, expensive to heat and with problematic stairs and steps. The message from the HAPPI report, as well as from the excellent report of the Future Homes Commission, is that unless we recognise the significance of good design, all our other efforts in seeking to address the nation’s acute housing problems will be a waste of time and money.