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The Thinkhouse review: should green belt land near train stations be prioritised for housing?

Professor Ken Gibb reviews a selection of recent housing research in the latest Thinkhouse monthly review

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This month’s @Thinkhouse_Info review is by @Gibb6781 and features work by @ICE_engineers @CentreforCities @HousingLin @CIHHousing @Sfha_hq @ShelterScotland @TPASscotland @WheatleyHousing and @Jrf_uk #ukhousing

The Thinkhouse Review: should green belt land near train stations be prioritised for housing? @Gibb6781 provides this month’s @Thinkhouseinfo review of housing research #ukhousing

Should green belt land near train stations be prioritised for housing? This idea and many more features in our latest @Thinkhouseinfo round-up of housing research #ukhousing @Gibb6781

The Thinkhouse review: should green belt land near train stations be prioritised for housing?

Thinkhouse is a website set up to be a repository of housing research. Its editorial panel of economists, chief executives, consultants and academics critiques collates the best of the most recent housing research (scroll down for more information).

Each month the Thinkhouse email comes into my inbox. It is a spreadsheet which covers all of the new reports that the panel has identified over the past four weeks. These are the publications that we consider when deciding which are to be promoted by the website.

This month it is my turn to say a little bit about the work that we have been reading in our virtual mailbag. I am, without being disrespectful to the other contributions, going to focus on five specific studies which piqued my interest for different reasons.

The first report is by the Institute of Civil Engineers: State of the Nation 2019: Connecting Infrastructure with Housing. This chimes with arguments that housing should be taken as fundamental economic infrastructure.

Its argument is that the UK requires a new way of planning strategic infrastructure for housing at a local, regional and national level.

The report recommends reforms to planning – suggesting, for instance, that the National Infrastructure Commission should include housing alongside economic infrastructure.

It also proposes recommendations that would extend and strengthen the Housing Infrastructure Fund in England and Scotland, and that the Welsh government should consider establishing its own version as well. The report also strongly suggests that strategic options should be identified for future proofing new housing developments and strengthening existing communities.

The second report I want to talk about is from the Centre for Cities and written by Paul Cheshire and Boyana Buyuklieva: Homes on the Right Tracks: Greening the Green Belt to Solve the Housing Crisis. This is one of those policy papers which uses sound logic and expert knowledge to propose an idea for at least one of the many solutions that will be required to address specific housing shortages.

The idea is that green belt or agricultural land within approximately half a mile of any train station that connects quickly to a major city core can be prioritised for new housing – unless there are strong environmental issues. The mechanism that makes this happen is that companies in and around the train hub, such as the National Rail or Transport for London, would be given these newly created development rights.

To do so, they would be required to set up new specialist development companies.

Supported by new ‘green development corporations’ that speed up planning decisions and promote the new development opportunities, the local development companies would be able to develop the nearby green belt or agricultural land, which, critically, they would be able to buy cheaply eg at just some kind of normal mark-up on agricultural value. This will facilitate housing development in well-served locations close to railway stations.

“Supported by new ‘green development corporations’, the local development companies would be able to develop the nearby green belt or agricultural land, which, critically, they would be able to buy cheaply”

In such cases where development subsequently takes place, a land development charge should be set at 20% of the market value of any such development when sold and the proceeds of this charge would be used exclusively for local community facilities, infrastructure and funding for social housing. An interesting idea, worthy of further debate and consideration.

Third, I was engaged by a report by Housing LIN for Architecture & Design Scotland trade body entitled: Town Centre Living: a Caring Place.

This short, visual report is interested in the design principles for developing accessible, adaptable and inclusive housing and neighbourhoods that have intrinsic demand from older residents, and in particular whether it is possible to think of these developments as ways of remaking town centres perhaps through the remodelling of existing buildings, by urban infill or other approaches.


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This paper is more of a series of case studies looking at specific plans across the UK and abroad, but I think it is a useful way of considering these very real urban design issues for the repurposing of our town centres and meeting, and perhaps anticipating, the changing age structure of housing demand.

Fourth, and being only slightly parochial, I also found useful is the Scottish Housing Day think piece: Housing as a Human Right. It was co-produced by the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers, the Chartered Institute of Housing, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, the Scottish Association of landlords, Shelter Scotland, TPAS Scotland, and Wheatley Group.

The paper sets out a collective vision regarding what the housing system could look like in Scotland if it was underpinned by the human rights that are enshrined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

It also considers the impact that human rights might have in terms of issues such as victims of domestic abuse. There are also important consequences for housing as a human right in terms of the statutory duties and implementation requirements that would flow from such a right.

This is not just a matter of abstract debate. In Scotland, the ‘Housing to 2040’ consultation explicitly raises the question about housing is a human right in Scotland.

Finally, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published a report by Karen Croucher, Deborah Quilgars and Alison Dyke: Housing and Life Experiences: Making a Home on a Low Income. The report is concerned with detailed qualitative, longitudinal study about the interaction between poverty and housing across the life course.

Good housing outcomes can mitigate poverty and support life events, but the research also documents how difficult it can be to try to make and sustain a home in the current housing system.

This is a fascinating rich account of the challenges faced by people in contemporary Britain experiencing the challenge of maintaining a home and consuming adequate housing while living in around levels of poverty at different stages in their lives.

Ken Gibb, professor in housing economics, University of Glasgow; and director, UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence

What is Thinkhouse?

What is Thinkhouse?

Thinkhouse was formally launched in spring 2018, and aims to “provide a single location and summary of the best and most innovative research pieces, policy publications and case studies”.

It specifically looks at reports that propose ways to boost the amount and quality of housing and the economic, social and community issues of not doing this.

The Thinkhouse editorial panel highlights the ‘must-read’ reports, blogs about them and runs the annual Early Career Researcher’s Prize.

The panel includes current and former housing association chief executives, academics, lawyers, economists and consultants. It is chaired by Richard Hyde, chief executive of a business that sells construction hand tools.

Who is on the panel?

Richard Hyde

Chair of Editorial Panel, CEO of HYDE

Gemma Duggan

Head of Compliance and Performance at Extracare

Chris Walker

Economist

Brendan Sarsfield

CEO, Peabody

Mick Laverty

CEO, Extracare Charitable Trust

Martin Wheatley

Senior Fellow, Institute for Government,

Kerri Farnsworth

Founder & MD, Kerri Farnsworth Associates

Suzanne Benson

Head of Real Estate for the Manchester office of Trowers.

Burcu Borysik

Policy Manager at Revolving Doors Agency,

Ken Gibb

Professor in housing economics at the University of Glasgow, Director of CaCHE

Peter Williams

Departmental Fellow, Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge

Brian Robson

Executive Director of Policy and Public Affairs at the Northern Housing Consortium

Francesca Albanese

Head of Research and Evaluation at Crisis

Jules Birch

Journalist and blogger

Susan Emmett

Head of Engagement for Homes England

Mark Farmer

Founder and CEO Cast Consultancy

Steve Moseley

Group Director of Governance, Strategy & Communications at L&Q

Jennifer Rolison

Head of marketing at Aquila Services Group

Philip Brown

Professor of Housing and Communities at the University of Huddersfield

Anya Martin

Senior researcher at the National Housing Federation

Emily Pumford

Policy & strategy advisor, Riverside

Anthony Breach

Analyst, Centre for Cities

Shahina Begum

Customer Insight Office, Peabody