There is an urgent need for more homes to be built around the country. With a homelessness crisis that has left the equivalent of around one child in every London classroom living in temporary accommodation, local authorities are left struggling to cope, amongst the other challenges they face on a daily basis.
As part of their General Election manifesto, and now in government, the Labour Party have set a goal of building one and a half million new homes by 2030. Whilst this will go a long way to addressing some of the housing challenges facing the country, there are bumps in the road that need to be overcome.
Discussing all of the housing challenges, solutions, and best practice across the UK public sector, Public Sector Executive hosted its 2024 Homes and Homelessness Online Conference. Over the course of five leaders debates, and two keynote speeches, the audience was able to hear from representatives of organisations such as West Midlands Combined Authority, Essex County Council, and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
The conference began with a keynote speech from Gemma Young (London Borough of Waltham Forest), who explored the issues around social housing fraud, and how it can bring serious issues for residents and councils. During her keynote, Gemma touched on the issue of maintaining a strong culture of tackling fraud, with the main driver for this being because “housing is a scarce resource, we need to make sure that what we’ve got is being allocated fairly.”
“Housing is a scarce resource. We need to make sure that what we’ve got is being allocated fairly.” – Gemma Young
Levelling Up the Housing Market: Devolution
The previous government put a focus on levelling up communities around the country, improving residents’ standards of living when they had been previously neglected, and offering better opportunities throughout their lives. Whilst the new government has dropped the ‘Levelling Up’ moniker, the mission still remains.
Thanks to a range of initiatives, housing has been one of the focuses of this drive to improve how the public lives. In order to discuss some of the initiatives that are in place, and the progress that is being made to improve the nation’s social housing stock, the first panel discussion of the day brought Jonathan Schifferes (Essex County Council), Cllr Tom Renhard (Bristol City Council), and Tony McGovern (Sandwell Council) in front of the audience.
“It’s pretty clear to most people who’ve worked in and around housing, that the UK housing market hasn’t delivered outcomes to everyone who needs positive outcomes.” – Jonathan Schifferes
Tackling Housing in Disrepair
In December 2020, two-year-old Awaab Ishak died as a result of a severe respiratory condition that stemmed from mould in the one-bedroom flat that he shared with his parents. As a result of this tragic event, Awaab’s Law was introduced as part of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, which aimed to end the poor state of some social homes.
Social landlords are now required to investigate hazards within two weeks, present findings within two days, and then begin repairs in the next week for any significant health or safety risks. Discussing this in the second panel discussion of the day was Cllr Simy Dhyani (Dacorum Borough Council) and Tristan Hemsley (Croydon Council).
“Housing disrepair has always been an issue, but it is worse than it has ever been. It requires a lot of work, over a long time, to address.” – Tristan Hemsley
Following the discussion on disrepair, the audience saw a second keynote speech – this time from Alyson Heald (L&Q). Alyson spoke about the importance of changing people’s mindsets when it comes to investing in social housing. Rather than seeing social housing investment as something that must be done and is a financial burden, she said that “we need to start seeing investment in social housing as adding to the national infrastructure.”
“We need to start seeing investment in social housing as adding to the national infrastructure.” – Alyson Heald
Homelessness: Prevention and cure
There is a homelessness crisis ongoing around the country. With £2.4 billion of government funding being committed over a three-year period, investment is being made but this has not stopped the number of households ending up living in temporary accommodation rising.
To give the audience the best insight into how local authorities can prevent homelessness, as well as how they can transition from having to host people in temporary accommodation, this panel discussion saw Kojo Sarpong (Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea) and Rob McCartney (Manchester City Council) coming together to impart their knowledge.
“Before the election was announced, central government had conversations with some local authorities about how the allocation of the Homelessness Prevention Grant can be revised…
“Now that the new government is in place, that conversation needs to happen quickly.” – Kojo Sarpong
Social Housing Decarbonisation: Greening the estate
Whilst there is a real push to build more homes and support people out of homelessness, other sector-wide goals don’t become less important. Luckily, the improvement of social housing stock can support decarbonisation goals.
One way of doing this is through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, which was used to retrofit or insulate 140,000 homes across the social stock, contributing to the lowering of carbon emissions and cheaper energy bills for residents. Alongside this, £45 million of funding has been put into the improvement of existing heat networks.
In the penultimate panel discussion of the day, James Caspell (Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea), Katie Treadwell (West Midlands Combined Authority), Bret Willers (Coventry City Council), and Michael Gallagher (Nottingham City Council) came together to discuss the current strategies In place to decarbonise social housing, and how it can be placed at the very heart of housing programmes.
“The stakes are really high in terms of getting it right.
“A quick win? I’m not sure. It’s more about how we lay the groundwork to get consistent wins.” – Katie Treadwell
Planning and Building
The final panel discussion of the day focused on planning. With the new government wanting to build 1.5 million new homes by 2030, areas such as brownfield land are going to be integral to finding the space for new homes, whilst having to use as little of the green belt as possible.
In order to discuss the issues surrounding planning, the green belt, and the delivery of new homes, the audience saw Cllr Todd Olive (East Devon District Council), Rob Krzyszowski (London Borough of Haringey), and Sarah Scannell (Birmingham City Council) come together.
“There is a risk that if you subcontract to a consultancy, you lose that connection. Planning has to be place-based.” – Rob Krzyszowski
To catch up on what the experts said, whether you missed it the first time or want to watch it again, you can find the 2024 Public Sector Homes and Homelessness Online Conference on demand here.
