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Blakeway: why I am working for Policy Exchange
Former City Hall deputy mayor for housing Richard Blakeway writes exclusively about the work he plans to do for thinktank Policy Exchange
For some industries not much has changed since the European Union referendum (so far), but this isn’t the case in housing.
The changing landscape is not restricted to the policy environment.
The industry continues to reconfigure, whether it’s strategic land deals like L&Q’s with Gallagher or construction deals like Your Housing with Chinese firm CNBM. But perhaps the biggest shifts are policy.
The government has put housing at the top of its domestic agenda. It has produced a well-received Housing White Paper, the first comprehensive analysis by the government for some time examining why we haven’t built enough homes and proposing policies to do so.
These policies range from simplifying and standardising needs assessments through to planning support for the build-to-rent sector.
“The government has put housing at the top of its domestic agenda.”
There is a constructive dialogue between the mayor of London, where the supply crisis is most acute, and ministers at the Department for Communities and Local Government.
And industry itself is starting to address thorny issues holding back housebuilding, such as skills and build methods. Some housing associations are demonstrating the considerable contribution they can make to building homes and new entrants are starting to get a foothold in the market.
Collectively this gives a real sense of momentum behind solving the UK’s housing crisis.
WHAT IS POLICY EXCHANGE?
Policy Exchange is a thinktank set up by a group of Conservative MPs, including Michael Gove and Nick Boles, in 2002.
The thinktank had particularly strong ties to the previous Cameron-led government, with its research director for housing Alex Morton joining the Number 10 policy unit in 2013.
Several of Policy Exchange’s ideas – often controversial in the housing sector – have found their way into the government’s housing policies in recent years.
In 2012 Mr Morton’s paper Ending Expensive Social Tenancies suggested sales of high-value vacant council homes to raise money for new housing. The current government still intends to use this idea – via a levy on councils – to fund the Voluntary Right to Buy for housing association tenants. Policy Exchange has also championed moves to bring more competition into the planning system and has called for new garden cities and measures to boost brownfield development, all of which have been adopted by the government.
However when it comes to new policy, it is unclear how much influence the thinktank has over the Theresa May administration.
Above all, it feels as if many parts of the system are, by and large, starting to move in the same direction.
Yet the challenge still remains colossal. Building at the rate required hasn’t been seen for generations.
The second-hand market is showing signs of strain. And while the fundamentals remain the same, the impact of Brexit – both opportunities and challenges – is yet to be seen.
That’s why I’m delighted to be helping Policy Exchange lead a programme which will challenge what more needs to be done on housing.
“Policy Exchange will explore the experiences of other countries and cities.”
This programme will be both practical and pragmatic. It will seek to bring together people with experience and fresh ideas to find solutions.
It will explore the experiences of other countries and cities which face similar housing problems to the UK – a fitting contribution given the increasingly global outlook Britain will be taking.
We will champion great design and style to shape and enhance our built environment – also a vital prerequisite to increasing the acceptability of new housing developments.
There are many questions the sector is asking which are still looking for answers. How can we further strengthen the link between design and community consent?
How can housing policy better meet demographic change especially, as is often cited, an ageing population? What’s the future of procurement after Brexit when European Union procurement rules may no longer apply but World Trade Organisation obligations do?
Over the coming months and years, Policy Exchange will explore these questions – some familiar, some new – through workshops, reports and debates to find solutions, help build consensus, and contribute to policy development now and into the next decade.
Richard Blakeway, chief advisor to Policy Exchange’s housing and urban regeneration unit
