COMMENT: Within two years of being set up, Brick by Brick, Croydon council’s housing company, has grown to become one of the capital’s largest housebuilders.
By next year it will have delivered some 1,000 homes, and expects to complete around 500 homes per annum thereafter.
And, according to Brick by Brick, 50% of its homes will be affordable. Croydon residents will also get first dibs on all properties – including those for sale.
The growth of this new developer is quite remarkable.
Others have talked the talk, with several local authorities setting up their own vehicles to get around government borrowing restrictions.
Newham’s Red Door Ventures has come close with its rental offering, and Lambeth is hoping to achieve something similar with its Homes for Lambeth plan, which will see eight council estates redeveloped to provide 3,400 new homes.
However, with around 1,400 homes demolished, the net addition is more like 2,000 homes, spread over a number of years.
But Croydon is the London borough leading the way. The question is: how?
Investment
Last summer, London mayor Sadiq Khan announced the benefactors of the first instalment of his £3.15bn housing fund from the Treasury.
While the bulk of the cash went to a number of housing associations, which set up strategic partnerships with City Hall, some did make its way to local authorities.
Lambeth got £55m. Brick by Brick got £5.6m.
However, with that relatively small slice of funding, a team of 18 people and an annual operating cost of circa £1m per year, Brick by Brick appears to be doing some sterling work.
With an average of around 20,000 new homes completing each year over the past decade, according to EG’s Radius Data Exchange, imagine what could be achieved if every other London borough was operating like Croydon.
Another 32 boroughs, discounting the City of London, could in effect contribute another 16,000 homes per annum combined.
However, Croydon is one of London’s biggest boroughs – both in terms of population and geographical area – so perhaps a more realistic back-of-beer-mat calculation would be to multiply Brick by Brick’s output relative to Croydon’s population against London as a whole.
The result would be an output of around 11,650 new homes per annum.
Ingenuity
Local authorities own a substantial amount of land. With estate regeneration increasingly under the microscope, Croydon has shown that with a bit of ingenuity you can build homes at scale, without resorting to full-scale estate regeneration.
The last time the country, and London itself, was building the sort of housing numbers we need was when local authorities themselves were the builders.
The time has come again for those local authorities to look at that same land.
Is it fit for the 21st century? If not then authorities need to be bold. Garage sites, for example, could go. Adjoining land could also be bought in order to generate a much larger development site.
The solution to the housing crisis is staring a lot of local authorities in the face. Unfortunately, the skills and resources needed have been stripped to the bone by successive national governments.
However, Brick by Brick has shown what can be achieved by looking at all the options including small infill developments, intensification and – where appropriate – tall buildings.
Should the GLA be backing other local authorities so they can follow Brick by Brick’s success? It wouldn’t be a bad idea.
To send feedback e-mail paul.wellman@egi.co.uk or tweet @paulwellman eg or @estatesgazette
