Come closer. I want to let you into a secret. Jeremy Corbyn and George Osborne are in agreement. No, it’s not a passion for photographing manhole covers (thank goodness). It’s actually quite serious.
They both believe that housing is one of the defining issues of this parliament.
For the chancellor, it’s about reversing the decline in home ownership. Hence the push for starter homes, for extending Right to Buy and a determination to focus on affordable homes for sale, not just to rent.
For the new Labour leader, it’s driven by a deep distrust of private landlords and a desire to replace them with state-owned, social homes to rent. Be under no illusions: housing is going to be a top priority for Labour in the months to come.
Sadly, this new political focus on housing could be just what we don’t need. Another ideological clash about housing tenures, and policy set by wider political and social ambitions, when what is required is simple, practical action.
We need more homes, regardless of tenure. We need practical solutions that get more homes built, more unused land developed, more empty buildings occupied.
However, what does this mean in practical terms? Estates Gazette readers will be familiar with the current machinations over transport hubs and permitted development rights. What other policies should the residential market look out for in the coming year? Let me suggest three.
The old model is dead
First, the old financial model for housing associations is dead. The cut in social rents over the next four years ends the core financial assumptions on which the entire sector has operated. So look out for a fundamental realignment. Some associations will merge and some will cease building affordable homes altogether. However, some of the stronger ones will actually flourish, as they become freer to innovate. This upheaval has direct consequences for the entire development market.
A professional rented sector?
Second, the policy bias towards amateur buy-to-let landlords is diminishing fast. The chancellor’s decision to trim their tax relief may have come as a shock, but it reflects a growing recognition in the Treasury that the scale of the buy-to-let sector is directly affecting the opportunities for first-time buyers to own their home.
When coupled with a clampdown on rogue landlords and strong support for build-to-rent schemes from the housing minister, Brandon Lewis, the net effect is to start to tip the balance towards a professional rented sector – one in which long-term institutional funds provide purpose-built homes, on longer leases. More could and should be done, but for my money it’s a start.
George the builder
Third, ministers are seriously thinking about going into the building trade. “Direct commissioning” (as the jargon goes) reflects a growing view in Whitehall that if housing associations can’t or won’t build what’s needed, then maybe government – as a major landowner – needs to plug the gap.
The starter homes initiative may be used to kick-start this aspiration, but readers may also want to carefully study the Housing Bill (expected this month), which looks like providing ministers with a wide range of enabling powers: in planning, in compulsory purchase and in land assembly. The combination would give ministers a real chance to start building homes themselves. I detect an appetite to use those powers, in one form or another.
For some time, housing professionals have bewailed the lack of interest at Westminster in the sector. Now it’s the centre of attention, for both the government and the opposition. It reminds me of that old adage: just be careful what you wish for.
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Mark Prisk is an MP, a member of Commons Communities and Local Government Committee and a former housing minister
