Way forward for affordable homes
The announcement by housing minister Grant Shapps of a ‘black hole’ in funding for affordable housing dealt a significant blow to a development model already struggling during the current economic climate.
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However, his ‘age of aspiration’, with more ownership and devolved local power, does provide further impetus for the affordable housing sector to innovate.
And it is commercial creativity and new partnerships that are needed to build the affordable homes this country so badly needs, address a growing housing crisis and create the ‘big society’ of tomorrow.
We need to find new ways to provide people with ownership and control of where they live.
Mutual Home Ownership Co-operatives could deliver shared equity solutions to enable local communities to secure the finances they need to build the homes they want, and own a stake in them. Mutuals could even emerge as development consortia in their own right, if they were provided with the right support. These are just some of the solutions we are already working on.
We also need stronger partnerships with local authorities and businesses to enable development, for example in providing land and facilitating inward investment.
Finally, despite the ‘black hole’, government must continue to provide some core funding to underpin future development and avoid stagnation.
With a little help, I am confident that as a sector we can and will rise to meet the challenge.
Dr Chris Handy OBE, chief executive, Accord Group