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Rallying call

There has never been a better time to push how housing can be a vital part of the much vaunted Northern Powerhouse, says Carol Matthews

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On 17 March, I will be joining the masses in Central Hall Westminster for the Homes for Britain rally. I will be proud to lead 30 colleagues – board members, customers and staff – as we demand that the next government pledges to ‘end the housing crisis in a generation’. Hats off to the Homes for Britain alliance, but in particular the National Housing Federation (NHF) who have spearheaded what is turning into the biggest housing campaign of my professional career.

By now, we are all familiar with the headline figures of housing woe – I don’t need to repeat them here – and at last, the political debate has moved onto our territory. Yet it feels as if the responses of all the main political parties are timid. As they trade numbers, it is clear that the parties are petrified to admit that we will only get the housing we need if we are prepared to invest more of our GDP. We can see this from both historical precedent and international comparison. Market-led solutions alone just will not work.

Of course, we will be told that the financial cupboard is bare by whoever takes power in May. However, with public expenditure (departmental) still at over £300bn per annum, it is a matter of priorities. Politicians rush to ringfence health and education spend, without acknowledging that without a proper roof over your head, both are severely prejudiced and cost more.

The root of the problem is that the nation doesn’t quite know what to think about housing as a policy issue. In the public’s eye, it doesn’t seem to have that ‘essential service’ status – maybe because the majority feel they solve their own housing problems through the market, perhaps not reflecting on the power the government has over planning, release of public land, taxation etc. And for the government, it’s not seen as ‘essential infrastructure’ in the same way as transport, energy and water. So it falls between two stools.

Homes for Britain

So under the Homes for Britain banner, let’s articulate the case for housing from both perspectives – as vital to the economic growth of UK PLC as any HS2, Crossrail or nuclear programme. And it’s essential to underpinning health and wellbeing, and providing a stable environment in which children and adults can learn, thrive and get on in life.

But once the post-election dust has settled, we need to move into a more nuanced territory. It’s not just about the amount of housing. From where I sit (somewhere outside the metropolis), it’s also about the ‘where’ – the role of housing in supporting economic recovery and making successful places. And with the talk of a ‘new wave’ of devolution post-election, there has never been a better time to push how housing can be a vital part of the much vaunted Northern Powerhouse.

To do that, we need a strong evidence base, which moves beyond the tainted memories of the last round of housing regeneration – the housing market renewel (HMR) programme – and establishes housing as an integrated part of the economic delivery jigsaw. Standalone housing programmes should be a thing of the past. We need strong sub-regional planning which integrates housing, transport and energy with the needs of business.

But we will only get that if we have the right framework of leadership in place. We only need to look to London, where the office of the mayor has had an enormous impact on the capital’s emergence as one of the world’s leading cities. Love or hate Boris (or Ken for that matter), rarely has an office/layer of local government been so universally praised. London would be unthinkable without it.

Working together

And we can see similar stirrings in Greater Manchester, where 10 authorities have a long track record of collaborative work which is now bearing fruit at quite an incredible rate. Who would have thought the chancellor would be their cheerleader?

How should we respond as a sector? Sit on the sidelines and applaud, or engage actively and become part of the movement? At Riverside, we have decided to take the latter course of action, which is why I have joined with 17 other chief executives from the north’s largest housing associations, to create a new group to make the case for housing. Together, we own nearly half a million homes – a third of the north’s affordable housing – and build one home in every 10 in the three northern regions. We’ve seen (and admired) what the G15 has done for the cause of affordable housing in the capital, and think we could do something similar up here. Watch this space!

So what are you doing on 17 March? Let’s all rally around the Homes for Britain cause for the ‘final push’ before 7 May.  But on 8 May, let’s start a proper dialogue with the new administration, and help them develop a plan to end the housing crisis with solutions tailored for markets across the whole country.

Carol Matthews, chief executive, Riverside Group

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