On 22 January this year we held a roundtable with a fascinating mix of planning, regeneration and legal officers from local and regional government, community-led housing organisations and networks, disruptive innovators, housing partnerships coordinators who were joined by some of our leaders contributing on governance, structures, planning, real estate, procurement and community engagement. 

We explored several themes, including:

• How do we help more people to live in homes that they can afford?
• Who is going to build houses, and how?
• What are the barriers that we must overcome to deliver good new homes and do the government-led reforms help or hinder this?
• How do we change the perception of a place so that it is known as a good neighbourhood?
• What actions should be taken to make neighbourhoods with new homes a success?

We would like to take this opportunity to thank attendees for their thoughtful and meaningful contributions.

Following the Government’s announcement of £3 billion funding to support the ambitious housing target (1.5 million homes to be delivered over the course of the next parliament), it seems like an opportune moment to recap on the key themes from that discussion.

Thoughts that emerged from the discussion include:

Community engagement

Community engagement is essential for building new homes. The places we live in and the physical space we occupy will of course have a profound impact on our physical health and mental wellbeing. It is important to create homes and neighbourhoods that are considerate of community-centric factors like safety, cleanliness, quality amenities and neighbourly relationships. Housing is not merely a commodity; it is a basic human necessity and a deep commitment to engagement from all stakeholders is needed.

Community-led and based engagement prevents a race to the bottom by developers to meet targets and will work towards capturing the genuine housing needs of the most vulnerable in society and could even optimise social value in planning, design, construction and delivery.

Who is going to build houses and how?

A genuine collaborative effort is needed. Partnerships need to be created between the local authorities who are subject to the new mandatory targets and who will likely be the conduit for grant funding following reorganisation and the creation of super authorities, and housing providers and developers who have the know how and skill to deliver housing developments at scale.

More clarity is needed when it comes to the timescales for the new National Planning Policy Framework and local government reorganisation. White papers and delayed updates on both matters have left the sector guessing as to when and what the mechanics for delivery will be.

How do we help more people to live in homes that they can afford?

Speeding up the planning process and tackling NIMBYism will all come in time with the implementation of the new NPPF. Reducing the complexity of local plans and expanding the use of permitted development rights would lead to a reduction in planning costs (which have almost tripled). In turn this would help with scheme viability and in theory this should lead to lower unit prices for end users – whether this theory would pan out in practice noting that developers are in the business of squeezing maximum profits from their schemes is questionable.

Delivery by SMEs, piloting schemes before building out to scale and smaller schemes are likely better alternatives to reliance on big house builders passing on the small wins they will make from planning reform.

Planning has suffered from years of underinvestment, with constrained resources in many local authorities. It is important to bring back the sense of planning, offering a career that is as much an art as a science, which has been largely lost with workloads that focus on process rather than outcomes.

Community land trusts (CLTs) can play a key role here backing community-led non-profit schemes to ensure long-term affordability. Community-led schemes also help speed up the planning process, as they lessen the likelihood of objections and work ‘with the grain’ of neighbourhoods. CLTs have to be genuinely community-owned, and therefore local involvement is woven into the governance architecture.

What are the barriers that we must overcome to deliver good new homes, and do the government-led reforms help or hinder this?

Government reforms have made some positive moves, but the system still favours large developers, lacks long-term certainty, and often neglects the infrastructure and affordability needed for truly ‘good’ homes. Reforms tend to tinker around the edges rather than address root causes like land costs, planning gridlock, and public investment.

Creating a coalition of the willing to provide a trusted way of enabling a pipeline of housing to be developed enables communities to be enhanced, rather than chasing numbers for their own sake. A good example is the Homes for the West Midlands collaboration which was launched by the West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker in November 2024 – and which is being promoted at this year’s UKREiiF (Mayor announces new partnership to help drive more social and affordable housing).

How do we change the perception of a place so that it is known as a good neighbourhood?

Structured, thoughtful and well maintained community spaces create attractive neighbourhoods and a carefully crafted stewardship plan needs to be curated from the outset and its viability and longevity tested early on.

Stewardship options can include:

• Adoption by local authorities - whilst at district and county level, we are seeing authorities increasingly reluctant to take on assets, there is increasing interest in the role of parish/town councils.
• The involvement of specialist national or regional organisations, such as the Community Land Trust Network (Community Land Trust Network | Homepage).
• The creation of bespoke, locally controlled, charitable entities giving scope for multi-stakeholder involvement.

UKREiiF

Anthony Collins partners Emma Lloyd, Mark Cook, Stuart Evans, Jon Coane and Kate Davies will be at UKREiiF if you’d like to talk with us about this further.