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Why we must collectively hold this government to account on housing

The general election may be done, but the sector must continue to push to make housing a priority, says David Done 

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Picture: Getty
Picture: Getty
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We must collectively hold this government to account on housing #ukhousing

“We’d love the government to make grant funding available for housing providers to experiment with new forms of housebuilding and use of new technology,” says @DavidDone1 @RHP_UK #ukhousing

“To help support young people, fundamental changes need to happen in the housing system including a sustained increase in housing supply, improvements in the options they have to access homeownership and better regulation of the private rented sector”

With the general election now over, there are three things I’d ask of the government to help us move forward as a sector and ultimately solve the housing crisis.

Keep backing housing associations

We are highly successful public/private partnerships and want to be great partners with national and local government in helping us to deliver the homes the country needs.

A huge part of this is, of course, receiving the right level of funding that’ll enable us to build more good-quality, affordable homes. The government needs to see this as a long-term investment that has the potential to save billions by reducing costs relating to homelessness, temporary accommodation and the benefit bill. As expected, all other policies including those relating to housing have been overshadowed in the run-up to the election by Brexit.


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However, once the results are in its imperative housing is brought back up their priority list.

I’m highly supportive of the National Housing Federation’s latest campaign (#FixTheHousingCrisis) which has used the general election period to make sure that calls for more social housing are heard and that housing associations are seen as the key partners to deliver it.

Invest in innovation in the housing sector

We’d love the government to make grant funding available for housing providers to experiment with new forms of housebuilding and use of new technology.

If we’re going to solve the housing crisis we need to think differently from the past. This doesn’t just include modular construction (which we have already started to implement at RHP) but also methods such as ‘Accord’s system’.

This is a closed panelised approach (think Ikea flatpack) that we have utilised in a previous development and led to benefits around cost, efficiency and sustainability. We’re also investigating pre-manufactured value (PMV) – the more that is done offsite in a factory, the better quality you get from a manufactured approach in a controlled environment.

“We’d love the government to make grant funding available for housing providers to experiment with new forms of housebuilding and use of new technology”

An example of this is a traditional build site that uses a bathroom or kitchen pod that are manufactured offsite and then installed on site. Then there’s SMART technology, which will not only reduce costs (so we can invest more in building homes) but it’ll also improve service as we’ll be able to fix a problem before a customer even knows they have one.

We’ve already had success with SMART sensors and are currently carrying out a number of trials with customers that’ll help remotely detect issues such as leaks and condensation.

All of these approaches will reduce costs in the long run, as well as having all sorts of other benefits connected to the environment and sustainability.

Don’t forget young people

As we all know, there’s a whole generation of people who are simply priced out of the housing market and forced to live in shared houses or still with their parents in their late 20s and 30s.

At RHP we’re on a mission to do something about this by inventing new forms of housing tailored to meet the needs of young people.

“To help support young people, fundamental changes need to happen in the housing system including a sustained increase in housing supply, improvements in the options they have to access homeownership and better regulation of the private rented sector”

Our LaunchPod modular home is geared towards those stuck in the rent trap and with the plan to offer them at sub-market rents we hope people are able to use them as a steppingstone to the growing portfolio of shared ownership homes we’re building.

To help support young people, fundamental changes need to happen in the housing system including a sustained increase in housing supply, improvements in the options they have to access homeownership and better regulation of the private rented sector.

If we’re to meet the housing needs of the nation, the government must take decisive action to make the right policy and investment decisions to support the delivery of good-quality, affordable homes to help us meet the needs of more people.

As a sector we all have an important part to play in this, continuously banging the drum about our work, what we need from the government and holding them to account if it’s not being seen as a high enough priority.

Working together in the right way, I truly believe we can end the housing crisis. For good.

David Done, chief executive, RHP

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