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Government in listening mode at No 10 housing summit
The prime minister was in listening mode at a Number 10 housing summit today with attendees from housing associations, councils, developers and the private rented sector.
In a rare meeting between the prime minister and representatives from across the housing sector, attendees were asked to share their ideas on how the government could boost housebuilding.
It is understood representatives from the Chartered Institute of Housing, the Local Government Association (LGA), the National Housing Federation, L&Q, G15 and the Home Builders Federation were among the attendees – as well as offsite and build-to-rent experts.
Paul Hackett, chair of the G15 group of housing associations, said: “Today’s opportunity for leaders from across the industry to sit down with the PM, the secretary of state and housing minister to share ideas on how we can increase supply felt like a very important milestone”.
“We talked about the benefits of flexible programmes, such as the cash programme in the early 90s which doubled housing association starts in a single year and the strategic partnerships with the Greater London Authority announced in July, which enabled the G15 to increase our bid by 50% – committing to 42,000 starts over the next four years. We’d love to see this approach adopted nationally.”
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Mr Hackett said the attendees were told by Theresa May that she could not guarantee all their suggestions would be acted upon but there is a collective will from government to do more to increase housebuilding.
David Montague, chief executive of L&Q, said: “It was an honest discussion about what needs to be done: what the barriers were, how we can work together to overcome those barriers, the importance of flexibility, the importance of partnership, the importance of investment in skills, the importance of delivering land.”
He added: “We’re speaking a common language now and that hasn’t always been the way. This is a Tory government. They want to give voters what they say voters want, which is to own their own home, and the conversation starts and ends with homeownership, but there is a complete understanding that not everybody can afford their own home so we’ve got to invest across all tenures if we’re going to build more homes.”
Lord Gary Porter, chair of the LGA, said the LGA’s presence at the meeting is a “positive sign” that the government sees councils as part of the solution to the housing shortage. He added it was “pleasing” that the prime minister is “taking personal ownership” of the housing challenge.
He said the government should lift the Housing Revenue Account borrowing cap, allow councils to keep 100% of receipts from Right to Buy and ensure planning departments are “adequately funded”.
