Housing boost plans under government scrutiny
I have been trying to get a micro “live/work” scheme off the ground in Skegness. It is a literal as well as a metaphorical challenge because of flood risk. I have the promise of £210,000 to help develop the scheme from a regeneration fund. I am really struggling to get any developers interested. This little tale comes to mind in the light of the following article which tells us:
“Ministers are studying plans to boost house building by lending publicly owned land to developers and relaxing requirements for building schemes to include social housing.
The recommendations are expected to be made in a report by Sir Adrian Montague, the businessman who has acted as an adviser to successive governments. Montague was asked to study how to tackle the chronic housing shortage, especially in the private rental sector, and the urgent need to revive the construction sector and boost employment.
Under the changes, the government and local authorities would “invest” land they own with private developers or housing associations, which say they can raise money to build homes but cannot afford to buy land as well.
The state would be repaid when the completed developments were sold to institutions such as pension funds, which have indicated they want steady income from rents but cannot take the risk of development or wait for their pay-back during the building phase.
To further encourage developers, councils could be urged to relax requirements for developers to build social as well as private housing; in return, they would have to agree that the rented homes could not be sold privately for a minimum period.”
Its not so long ago that most councils were involved in projects based on housing led regeneration – since 2008 it increasingly feels like the boot is on the other foot. It will be interesting to see how effective this report, the latest in a long line of efforts to restart the housing market, is in driving effective change.