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Associations must focus on mixed development – we can’t compete outright with house builders
Housing associations have a crucial role to play in building the homes this country needs – but they must find a middle ground rather than simply compete with volume builders, writes Bjorn Howard
The challenges we face has required the galvanisation of certain elements of the housing sector – housing associations in particular.
Quite rightly, the need to boost build rates to meet demand has meant that delivering homes – not just managing them for social and affordable rent tenants – has had to become a focus for us.
The result has, in my view, led to a far stronger social housing environment with more commercially focused and financially robust housing associations coming to the fore – an archetype that Aster has always tried to embody.
While it is positive that we are going beyond the remit of a traditional housing association to deliver more homes, focusing solely on land-led development is, in reality, the preserve of volume-driven house builders.
We can’t compete in this space and nor should we try.
Yet there is an ongoing need for housing associations to both build more homes and ensure the sector as a whole is offering more variety.
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Our way of doing this has been to pursue a mixed-development strategy. We build homes for open market sale, shared ownership and social and affordable rent. But variety is more than just the homes themselves – being able to produce this range of tenures means using different delivery methods, too.
While we do manage a large number of land-led developments and build homes for the open market, we also seek out joint ventures with private house builders, such as our partnership with Galliford Try, to drive community-led developments and deliver homes on developments via Section 106 agreements.
“Focusing solely on land-led development is, in reality, the preserve of volume-driven house builders. We can’t compete in this space and nor should we try”
This enables us to engage, via our development strategy, with every stakeholder in the housing sector: house builders, government and the communities that need the homes we build and manage.
Housing associations bridge the gap between the people who need homes and the processes through which those homes are delivered.
By varying the methods we use to deliver, and who we partner with to do so, we can be far more effective in ensuring the needs of the communities we’re building for are kept in the front of our minds.
Perhaps the best example of this mantra in action is the contrast between the community land trusts (CLTs) we manage and the joint ventures we operate with developer Galliford Try.
On one hand, CLTs can be very effective at supporting small-scale housing projects that don’t attract established developers. This makes them crucial for meeting very specific housing needs at a local level but unlikely to put a dent in the overall build targets the government has set for the sector.
On the other hand, large developments – such as our 500-home joint venture with Linden Homes in Hampshire – are far more likely to deliver the volume of homes we need to meet demand.
“We can’t unlock smaller parcels of land through these larger developments. The right approach therefore must be a mixture of different channels that acknowledges the need to deliver volume while ensuring we cater for a variety of housing needs”
From our perspective, the joint venture approach also means supporting the delivery of a range of different types of home can be part of the project by design, not as an add-on in order to meet Section 106 obligations.
But we can’t unlock smaller parcels of land through these larger developments. The right approach therefore must be a mixture of different channels that acknowledges the need to deliver volume while ensuring we cater for a variety of housing needs.
We are investing £1.5bn to fund this ambition and we’re committed to ensuring the homes delivered will be across a range of tenures and types of development. Achieving that wouldn’t be possible with a more singular approach.
Stakeholders across our sector – from house builders to local authorities – all have important roles to play in delivering the homes the UK needs. But it’s us as housing associations, with our acute understanding of the communities our work supports, that can ensure these different elements come together to deliver the right variety, as well as the right number, of homes.
To do this effectively we need to occupy the centre ground and engage with the rest of the sector. In doing so, we can ensure that everyone acknowledges the importance of building more homes while also choosing the right type of developments and tenures for the communities we know so well.
Bjorn Howard, group chief executive, Aster Group
