Five challenges for our fifth housing minister in a year

COMMENT Lucy Frazer’s appointment as housing minister at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities makes her the fifth person to hold that title in 2022 alone. At a time when affordability is at an all-time low and 2.8m people in England live in substandard rental accommodation, what the country needs is stability and long-term change from those who set housing policy, not a revolving door. Frazer will be used to tricky housing landscapes in her role as MP for South East Cambridgeshire, one of the least affordable and most complex planning locations in the UK. But with so much change in DLUHC, there has been little change to policy itself. Five priorities Assuming the position remains in Frazer’s hands for a healthy tenure, there are five core priorities she should seek to tackle in order to truly move the dial for housing in the UK. Affordable housing Health and safety Planning reforms Quality control Supply Affordable housing is in crisis thanks to a perfect storm of supply, costs and energy prices affecting viability; the inflexibility, lack of commerciality and empowerment of local authorities holding up developments if the affordable housing quota isn’t met (30% of nothing is nothing!); and as we head into a recession that the Bank of England says will last until mid-2024.  With institutional investment favouring social impact, the government has an ideal opportunity to encourage with tax breaks or other incentivisation rather than penalisation of those who cannot afford it but mean well. Health and safety is a huge concern – cladding dominates the headlines and this is a massive obstacle that must be dealt with, but we also have swathes of housing that has poor air quality, is hugely inefficient and, in a disturbingly high proportion, is actually dangerous to residents. The planning system is still hugely archaic and, despite the introduction of Class E, there remain too many delays, not enough diversity or digital engagement and too much political influence on developments. The right sort of development in the right places needs defining and fast-tracking along with developments and developers that prioritise ESG actively.  When PDR and class E has been utilised, too many of the resulting homes are ill-designed and not representative of the high street or environment they are located in. Worse, some of the hastily converted units are not fit for living spaces. While design codes are difficult to put together due to vast differences of architecture, culture and heritage across each borough, quality control is essential and this must be given real thought.  Even if the top four developers could bring forward all sites and build all units proposed without delay, we would still most likely be only halfway to the supply that needs to be delivered. SME developers should be empowered, funded or incentivised and wherever possible have their planning fast-tracked to fill the voids. SME housebuilders are often local or invested in the surrounding community, design a quality product, take time over their planning submissions to get it right and are often ESG champions that procure high-quality long-lasting and environmentally friendly materials. Communicate success  How do we solve all of this? By drawing on the expertise of the private sector to work in collaboration with central government, housing associations and local authorities to share ideas, best practice and innovations with some sort of reward system in place and the communication of success stories.  Local authorities and SME housebuilders must be empowered and funded. The planning system should be restructured to promote the right sorts of development in the right places without political ambition allowed to delay progress. And a long-term structural, consistent strategy is needed that builds in flexibility, driven forwards by an owner who cares passionately about getting these things right more than the aesthetics of “doing something”, even if it’s not the right thing. Nick Fell is head of residential at Rapleys Image courtesy of PR