Why London’s next mayor must focus on retrofitting housing

COMMENT Throughout my career, I have been passionate about actively working to address the housing crisis – it is something that directly impacted my life. I am proud to be able to walk around London and see amazing homes that weren’t there 10 or 15 years ago, and we are producing some great-quality stuff. But somehow, with all the best minds working on it for decades, our housing crisis feels like it is getting worse. Younger people now have even less security around a place to call home than I did 20 years ago, and we have an even worse issue of a decaying social housing stock that is in need of drastic retrofit and improvement. Capacity and knowledge I am enthused to see Sadiq Kahn put the housing crisis at the heart of his next London mayoral campaign, but I question whether his pledge of a Greater London Authority housing delivery vehicle is what the city really needs. Development companies take a long time to establish properly and need long-term stability to really thrive. If this is going to be something that is truly for London and not just a glossy election pledge, then it needs cross-party support and buy-in. This is obviously quite difficult to pledge in an election campaign, but if he is successful it will be important to secure this. There is growing development capacity and knowledge in the London boroughs and funding available for new-build homes. The areas where we are struggling are retrofit and construction. It would serve London better if the GLA, as the strategic authority, put these two issues at the heart of a housing electoral pledge. Instead of repeating what boroughs have already done, it would be better for the GLA to focus on piloting retrofit projects and use that to start upskilling the design and construction sector. Retrofit projects continue to start and stall owing to costs and risks. We need an organisation to take the lead on this and see the potential to invest and share the knowledge. Leaner, cleaner, safer It is important that we start with the homes that are already there. Not only are these some of London’s most vulnerable residents, it makes sense from a climate perspective, and we should be improving the existing homes on estates before we put a spade in the ground to create new homes around them. There is so much to explore that needs investment: quality, safety, working with residents in place. Where there is a real opportunity in a GLA-owned development company is in a construction or enabling arm that local authorities could partner with. The rise of design-and-build procurement sees the risks transferred to the contractors at a hefty price tag and gives local authorities and housing associations less control over critical issues such as quality and safety. In line with the outcomes identified by the mayor’s London Recovery Board, it could prioritise creating good-quality construction jobs and invest in off-site construction and technologically led manufacturing. This would create leaner, cleaner and safer developments. It could showcase how to retrofit existing buildings and create opportunities for the circular economy. And it could help tackle the loss of skills in this industry. Chloë Phelps is chief executive of Grounded