Devolution drive

Like housing, devolution is now firmly on the political agenda, and is here to stay. Just yesterday in the Autumn Statement, the chancellor re-committed to a swathe of City Deals, and even announced a new one. Those who believed that the devolution agenda would not outlast the tenure of his predecessor, George Osborne, have clearly been confounded.

Why? It’s not that politicians have suddenly discovered an inner passion for the intricacies of constitutional reform (although there are still some Lib Dem MPs about, I hear). Rather, people have woken up to a simple truth: devolution gets things done.

Central government does not always have the capability to develop policies that respond to local conditions, and, just as importantly, sometimes local authorities are just too local to provide strategic regional leadership. The Northern Powerhouse idea was born of a hard-headed conclusion that, if Mr Osborne were to achieve the UK-wide growth he needed for his own ends, he needed regional bodies to help him achieve his vision.

As IPPR North recently argued, in the Royal Institute of British Architects-commissioned Closer to Home report, exactly the same kind of rationale should be behind a new wave of devolution, focused on housing. There are already some elements of housing in the current devolution deals, notably powers over spatial planning. But, if the government is serious about delivering on its own ambitious housing targets, it simply has to go much further.

Here’s one example. The government has a manifesto commitment to deliver 200,000 Starter Homes. Its current policy? Diverting the Affordable Housing Programme away from social housing and having a 20% Starter Home requirement on all new sites. Not only does this undermine site viability in some areas of the country, it deprives housing associations of a vital stream of funding.

The alternative? Combined authorities could do a deal with central government to deliver the Starter Homes it needs. But in return they should be able to pool Affordable Housing Programme funding with various other pots – such as new homes bonus payments and Right to Buy receipts – while having the flexibility to set their own affordability requirements on a site-by-site basis. This should not only deliver on the Starter Homes pledge, but ramp up numbers across all tenures.

And powers should not only be granted to combined authorities from above, but pooled from below. One of the great success stories of London devolution is the Housing Design Guide. Developers appreciate the consistency they now have across the capital, while families benefit from the higher quality of new homes.

So combined authorities should be given the powers to develop design code standards and common viability frameworks to de-risk planning and improve the quality of the built environment. This will help deliver housing numbers, and secure public support for new homes in their areas. Both are needed if the government is to meet its one million homes target.

The case is clear. If the government is to meet its ambitions, the current wave of devolution can only be the beginning.

Mark Winterburn, policy advisor, Royal Institute of British Architects