The Housing Forum Everyone Needs a Home 070411

8/2/2019 The Housing Forum Everyone Needs a Home 070411

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Everyone Needs a Home

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Everyone Needs a HomeReport o Working Groups April 2011


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Introduction

Housing in Britain now operates in a completely newcontext. For every penny spent on housing to count, thehousing property sector needs a big voice. The HousingForum believes that our strong public and private sector

connections give us the voice o the industry. We haveeectively brought all the housing property sectorstogether, by building on the success o partnering andjoint venture approaches a central part o The Housing

Forums oer. Now is the time or innovation and orhomes built to the highest standard and or improvementin the existing stock through asset managementand maintenance. The Housing Forum works or realprogress at a local level, while applying the best nationaland international practices.

As The Housing Forum sets out its

priorities or housing over the next

couple o years, we are aware that the

sector operates in a climate where

new sources o investment unding or

housing are sought. We also operate

in the context o an increasingly

smaller public sector. The nature

o public sector commissioning o

housing will reduce and local planning

rameworks will change. The provision

o new homes and better reurbished

homes in this context does need a

more agile and proactive approach,

and this report and our our working

groups have set out practical solutions

to help this come about. Our our

working groups have involved over 70

leading cross industry experts who

have examined the pertinent issues and

considered What does the housing

property sector have to do to ensure

housing delivery?

Barry Munday

Chairman, The Housing Forum.

Shelagh Grant

Chie Executive, The Housing Forum.

A radical change is underway in the

planning rameworks and our rst

report is Do-it-yoursel Planning and

Housing Delivery in a Localist World.

Our approach has been to dig deep

into the aims o the Decentralisation

and Localism Bill which is intended to

be enacted by 2012 and oer practical

proposals to show how it might be

delivered and where urther clarication

is needed. The Housing Forum, rom its

days o The Customer Driven Strategy,

has chimed with a neighbourhood and

sustainable ocus, but, the message

is still quite clear - many more homes

are needed.

Report Contents

Do-it-yoursel Planningand Housing Delivery ina Localist World 8-13

At the Heart is Housing 14 -19

Aordability Later in Lie 20-25

Routes to CommunityScale Retroft 26-36

What Happens Next? 37

DCLG HouseholdProjections 2008-2033 38

List o Participants 39

Front Cover:LHA-ASRA Elmgrove

Point, Plumstead

Photographer:Grant Smithwww.grant-smith.com

The views expressed in this report reect the

wide range o contributions made by the working

groups but would not necessarily be shared by

individual members, or their organisations.


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Willmott Dixon - Denham Garden Village


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This is a work in progress, intended to

make sure that nal housing outcomes

are successul and aligned to local

priorities, in the ollowing topic areas

which will be updated on an ongoing

basis:

Making the Case or Development

Presumption in Favour o

Sustainable Development

Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs)

Local Vision and Wellbeing

Outcomes

Improved Evidence and Practice

in Strategic Housing Market

Assessments (SHMAs)

Inrastructure Finance and Delivery

Land Price and Challenges orValuation

Community Housing Opportunities

We have examined the overall approach

to aordable housing in our second

report At the Heart is Housing which

is set in the current operating context

and takes the view that market models

or rented housing are being considered

by the commercial sector as a strategy

o diversiying as they see less social

housing units being built. Demographics

indicate pressure or more homes will

not change but a more successul

way o reconciling new and existing

communities through planning reorms

is vital.

The challenge or the housing

association sector in particular in

delivering on the new fexible tenure

regime relies, to an important degree,

on maximising assets along with otherunding regimes. The best use o asset

disposal techniques can benet rom

lessons learnt in partnering, options

appraisal and stock condition surveys to

ensure that capital assets are maximised

on sale and disposal programmes.

Taken as a whole, the new regime,

worked in with the suite o local

incentives presents opportunities or

local councils and housing associations

to raise the bar and cater or a new

and emerging generation o long-term

renters. Preparing to meet new markets

in terms o graduate workers and

newly retired can bring balance and

range to a management portolio and

an opportunity to develop new types o

renting and products.

There are signicant economic

dierences in housing markets across

the country and reorms need local

sensitivity and fexibility or local

circumstances.

A housing market o a dierent type is

opening up in the retirement arena as

our third report Aordability Later in

Lie sets out. The inevitability o the

need to make personal provision or care

and support in later lie and the act that

home equity is the major source o unds

or many suggests that the industry

should be catering or those able to

make choices in this area.

We have ocussed on how this

might come about and how housing

businesses might deal with this. Whilst

new generations o extra care have

evolved as a response to social and care

needs, we believe that certain actors

which can stimulate the market have not

been ully addressed.

Our conclusions suggest dierent

drivers which need to come through

economic actors mean that schemes or

the elderly are likely to be much greater

in number o units and overall size.

This requires dierent conversations,adjustments and consultations both

with communities and with potential

residents themselves.

Bromford Housing Group - Landmark Point, Burton-on-Trent

Introduction


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Placing schemes at the centre o urban

areas but in accessible neighbourhoods

oers the opportunity to access

supplementary revenue schemes

by shared developments with health

related and retail uses and it is in these

locations that there is sucient volume

o demand.

There will be more mixed tenure in the

uture and schemes will be development

driven. In order to work at a commerciallevel, this will oten mean oering units

or sale ahead o the social rented

sector.

The existing housing stock is the

key to delivery on the low carbon

agenda with or without new build

additions. Our ourth report Routes to

Community Scale Retroft is written

on the threshold o changes to nancial

mechanisms and explores a complex

range o motivators, providers and

opportunities.

Despite wide recognition o the issues

in the sector, retrot policy, timescalesand process have lacked co-ordination

and or too long ocussed on individual

properties.

Town and Country Housing Group - Orpington High Street

The era o localism and the

introduction o Neighbourhood

and Community Plans provide

the opportunity to tie this

together as a resh platorm

or retroft policy. Our report

outlines the main approach at a

higher level as a basis or good

practice work in this area.


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Alan SoperChair o Working Group:

Routes to Community Level Retroft

From 2004 until his recent retirement,

Alan was Managing Director o IanWilliams, a large, privately owned

company providing services to the built

environment. The companys main

sectors o expertise are social housing,

education and public buildings and it is a

direct employer o all major trade skills.

Alans background in the outsourced

services sector, includes 12 years in

Facilities Management, running the

FM businesses o AMEC and EMCOR.

Following a degree in Mathematicsat Exeter University, his early career

was spent with the National Freight

Corporation, leading to his rst MD

appointment at the parcels company,

Lynx Express. Ater a short spell with

the waste management company, Bia,

he subsequently advised the Ocean

Group on strategic acquisitions then

joined AMEC in 1997.

A Henley MBA, he has been a vice

chairman o the Business Services

Association and is a regular speaker

and acilitator on service management

issues.

The Housing Forum

Working Group Chairs

Stephen HillChair o Working Group:

Do It Yoursel Planning

Stephen is an independent public

interest practitioner, with orty years opublic and private sector experience o

housing, planning and delivering mixed-

use development, urban extensions,

new settlements, and community-led

neighbourhood regeneration.

He is currently RICS representative

on the CLG Housing Policy Sounding

Board, and Housing Construction

Roundtable, through which he has been

co-ordinating a sel-organised housing

sector group working with CLG onnew policy development and plans or

delivery. He is now chairing a working

group on Land Supply or CLGs newly

established Sel-Build Government-

Industry Group. For over 20 years, he

has championed land tenure and tax

reorm, Community Land Trusts and

citizen led housing solutions.

John CrossChair o Working Group:

At the Heart is Housing

John has been Chie Executive o bpha

since 1995 and was appointed to theBoard in 2004. He is responsible or

advising the Board on the ormulation

o policy and the implementation o

Board decisions, and also leads bphas

sta and the overall management o the

Association.

John has twice been a member o the

National Housing Federation Board,

serving a total o 11 years. He was

elected to the position o Chair in

October 2006 or a three year term andhas also chaired its Housing Finance

and Investment and Regeneration

Committees.

He is a Board member o both

the Oxord and Gloucestershire

Care Partnerships and Chair o

Cambridgeshire Partnerships Limited.

More locally, John chairs the Bedord

Borough Partnership (the local

strategic partnership) and is an active

member o Renaissance Bedord, a

partnership o public and private sector

organisations supporting the delivery o

the sustainable communities plan in the

Bedord area.


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Roger BattersbyCo-Chair o Working Group:

Aordability Later in Lie

Roger Battersby is Managing Director

o PRP Architects, where he is alsoin charge o the practices specialist

housing portolio. His involvement in

the design and delivery o housing or

older people over the last 20 years has

made him one o the UKs authorities in

this sector. His knowledge o the subject

extends across both the private and

public sectors and rom independent

retirement living to higher care &

community based health acilities. Roger

is a regular speaker at conerences and

seminars on housing or older people

which have included organisations

such as CABE, Architects Journal

Conerences, Laing & Buisson, the

IAHSA, National Housing Federation,

Chartered Institute o Housing and The

Housing Forum.

He was a panel member on the

Innovation Panel or the Housing our

Ageing Population (HAPPI) initiative

commissioned last year by CLG and

the HCA to make recommendations or

a new generation o housing or older

people.

Bob WalderCo-Chair o Working Group:


Bobs career in housing began in 1977 in

Moss Side, Manchester. He spent veyears in the Potteries as Development

Manager and Deputy Chie Executive

o an Association beore joining The

Longhurst Group in 1989. He has been

a Fellow o the Chartered Institute o

Housing since 1990.

Bob was Chairman o the National

Housing Federation (NHF) in the East

Midlands rom 2001 to 2005 and

Chairman o the East Midlands Regional

Housing Board until it was discontinuedin 2010.

Bob is a keen supporter o Homeless

International and is on the board o a

local college. Bob has dedicated his

working lie to housing and support and

believes that by working together we

can make a positive dierence to local

communities.


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The BrieThe work o this groupis a continuation o thework carried out last yearunder the title Plan andDeliver - a response to the

Localism agenda. Post the2010 election, the CoalitionGovernment has movedswitly into legislation.The Decentralisation andLocalism Bill is likely tobecome law early in 2012.

Whatever detailed changes might occur

along the way, the general direction

o planning and housing policy is now

clear. These changes within planning

and local government, when combined

with the revisions to housing nance,

the benets system and the overall

economic climate will have ar reaching

eects on housing delivery.

With the content o the Bill well

documented by others1, the main ocus

o the working group has been to:

Do-it-yoursel Planning

and Housing Delivery ina Localist World

identiy and comment on a

number o practical issues arising

out o the proposed legislation,

and

develop Brieng Notes or

dierent parts o the industry

and especially or new MPs and

council members as part o a

growing Toolkit or Sustainable

Development

. hence the term Do-it Yoursel

Planning.

The Housing Forum has consistently

supported a localist approach to

housing and planning, which in the

longer term, i implemented properly,

could begin to turn the tide o public and

political opinion towards a more positive

and sustainable attitude to providing

new homes and better services or local

communities.

Such changes were the intended

outcome o the planning reorms o

2004, and to bring them about now,

still requires the major cultural change

that has not yet been achieved, and the

resources to make it all happen. But

the message is still quite clear more

homes are needed and the process and

time period o reorm must be managed

to avoid delay and which could lead to

the under-delivery o homes.

The absence o planning certainty as the

essential building block o investment

condence in new inrastructure and

housing supply threatens the investment

and growth agenda which is imperativeto national economic recovery.

A key part o this work is the

development o a Toolkit or

Sustainable Development to advise

the sector as policy develops. More

inormation on the Brieng Notes

which orm part o the Toolkit can be

ound at the end o this report and on

The Housing Forum website: www.

housingorum.org.uk

Lancaster Cohousing - A community-led project o 40 socially and environmentally sustainable homes will be one o Europes largest

PassivHaus developments. These Code 6 homes will match local market values or normal housing. Start on site June 2011.

1 See Decentralisation and the Localism Bill: an

essential guide and A plain English guide to

the Localism Bill at www.communities.gov.uk


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Housing supply: a train crashor running out o steam?

In the words o one group member we

are heading or a train crash. A more

relevant metaphor might be that o

running out o steam. Once the current

pipeline o work rom Kickstart, Homebuy

Direct, and the last o the Homes and

Communities Agencys (HCAs) 2010/11

programme have worked their way

through the system, there may be little

let to stoke the engine. In early 2011,

Industry undamentals are:

A all-o in supply and orders or

new work rom an already low

base in 2010Absence o credit, making

new investment dicult or

manuacturers, contractors and

house builders o all sizes

Closure o rms across the

supply chain including some

substantial materials suppliers

and contractors, and

Loss o capacity and skills leading

to uture reliance on imports o

materials and labour.

Moves towards greater empowerment

or individuals and communities must

thereore be balanced with the need to

create aordable homes or all, and or

the employment opportunities that their

production can bring.

We have thereore taken a balanced

approach to assessing both the risks

and the opportunities o planning and

housing reorm.

First impressions o the Bill

The popular perception o the Billcould probably be summarised as less

planning: less housing. The rhetoric is

about simpliying, and even bypassing

traditional planning processes, reeing

communities and developers rom

past planning restrictions and centrally

imposed housing targets.

The reality is rather dierent; in act,

almost the direct opposite.

On planning: whilst Regional Spatial

Strategies [RSS] are going, the Local

Development Framework [LDF] remains

intact. Authorities who have suspended

work on their LDFs now have no reason

not to resume. The new Local Economic

Partnerships [LEPs] will have an as-yet

unresolved role in spatial planning and

the delivery o inrastructure.

It is likely that each LEP will be dierent;

e.g. where areas which come together todevelop a coherent and integrated plan

across an economic area, this could

provide a stronger ramework or strate-

gic decision-making and drive change.

In other areas, LEPs may choose not

to have a planning role because it is

deemed unnecessary.

New Neighbourhood Plans will be

possible, potentially with universal

coverage and their own unique

inspection regime. There will be a new

National Planning Policy Framework,

and special procedures or community

led housing projects will also be

grounded in new planning instruments

like Community Right to Build Orders.

On housing: whilst central housing

targets will also go, local councils will

still have to set their own targets. I there

is no adopted plan in an area, becausethe LDF is not in place, the presumption

in avour o sustainable development

will eectively give planning applicants

a deemed consent. Deemed consents

will be able to rely on the evidence o

local demand rom Strategic Housing

Market Assessments (SHMA), which in

most cases will indicate that both higher

numbers o new homes and aster rates

o completion are needed than those

that were adopted in the RSSs. Equally,

Neighbourhood Plans will only be able

to modiy the number o new homes in

the area upwards. Neighbourhood Plans

will eectively be detailed local housing

delivery documents.

Moreover, all the current planning

reorms need to be set against

orthcoming changes in EU regulations

arising rom the Lisbon Treaty; tightening

up on environmental impacts, and rom

2014, the Territorial Impact Assessment

[TIA] to measure the impact o both

national and sub-national policies and

development decisions on local places.

Ashley Vale Self-build project, Bristol-

This 37 home and workspace scheme is the

frst group sel-build project to win a Building

or Lie Gold Award, and was an alternative

response to development proposals that had

been unpopular with local residents.

Photo:SteveMcLa

ren


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As the Plain English Guide to the

Localism Bill states: A good planning

system is essential or the economy,

environment and society.

What will be the impact othe Bill?

The Bill aims to shit power rom central

Government to individuals, communities

and councils to give greater

opportunities to infuence the decisions

made on the provision o services at a

local level.

However, the political narrative, which

is essentially about the need or culture

change, is not yet suciently clear.

Despite the realities o the Bills impact,

outlined above, there is emerging

evidence that the process reorms will, in

many areas, lead to very little happening,

with an inherent resistance to change

being the deault setting.

There is also a lack o clarity as to what

constitutes a community. The Parish

Council may be a natural denition in

rural areas, but things become cloudier

within urban areas where wards are not

something with which people readily

identiy, and which may contain three,

our, or even more communities o place.

With the removal o the regional tier

o sub-national planning, the lack o

coherent and reliable inrastructure and

planning and investment certainty at the

right spatial scale is a urther critical

problem that the Bill ails to address.

The duty to co-operate placed upon

adjacent local councils seems too looseto be eective, when signicant and

potentially risky investment decisions

have to be made by both public and

private investors.

Overall, the Bill and its associated

policies appear weak on eective

incentives, and contain ew sticks to

stretch supply. The New Homes Bonus

may be attractive, particularly when local

councils are acing cuts. However, local

councils need more incentives at the

ront end o delivery programmes, not

time lagged payments ater completion,

but we are into uncharted territory.

For instance, will the incentive be

sucient or non-developing councils

to start growing again simply to regain

the money that will have been top

sliced rom their central government

settlement?

Neighbourhood Plans will be resourceintensive, and communities will need

to be able to call on new sources o

enabling and proessional support.

Local planning departments will be



Passivhaus Building Group at the Smiley Barracks Project in North Karlsruhe, Germany

- The city council set up an arms-length development management company to assist 10

building groups realise this 195 home scheme, or a range o income groups and special

needs; all to high environmental standards.

Photo:SteveMcLaren

Wick Village Tenant Management Housing

Co-operative, Hackney, London -Residents involved in the redevelopment o

the notorious Trowbridge Estate in the early

1990s, co-designed this 123 home scheme

with Levitt Bernstein Architects. They con-

tinue to manage it or their landlord, Hackney

Council.

Photo:SteveMcLaren


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severely stretched over the next ew

years, needing to cope with sta cuts

but also service Neighbourhood Plans

and submit suspended or incomplete

LDFs or Public Examination.

Although, some LEPs have a strong

business presence now, and have

potential or more, that will only be

sustained i there are clear roles or

business and real and quick tangible

benets or their participation. There is a

concern that the role o business in this

process has not been acknowledged.

However, in Neighbourhood Plans, where

the participation o local and oten very

small businesses could be essential,

and may depend on their resources and

support, they will have no say in support-

ing or opposing a Plan, and thereore no

obvious reason or participating.

There is a need or a more inclusive

approach which marries the rightso individuals and the obligations o

local councils with the vital economic

contribution that business can bring to

communities.

In the past, too much emphasis in planning reorm has been placed on process and

not enough on content, culture change and vision. Whilst the detail o the new Bill

itsel will do little to address this undamental need, the message to Government

must be to explain, convince, and challenge; responsibility or culture change rests

with political community leadership.

What amendments might be needed?

The group had a number o questions about the principles o the Bill, especially on

Neighbourhood Plans, and the Community Right to Build, as well as on strategic issues:

Are reerendums an appropriate mechanism within planning? Good planning

balances a range o considerations. The answers are rarely a simple yes or no.

Over-use o reerendums could create social divisions rather than resolve them.

Who will undertake the light touch examination o the Neighbourhood

Plan? There is need or better denition o the skills and role o Independent

Assessors to ensure that plans comply with both legal requirements and

national policy. Where will they come rom?

How will more robust evidence o demand be collected to set the benchmark

o supply levels that will be set or Neighbourhood Plans? Housing demand

and need oten spans across neighbourhood and local council boundaries and

changes over time. Better evidence collection, better assessment methods

and guidance on their use will be essential tools or ensuring that appropriate

housing is planned or.

How will action happen across administrative boundaries when decisions and

action are critical or maintaining or improving community wellbeing? We have

already highlighted the need to strengthen duties to co-operateacross and

within council areas, and between councils, LSP partners and communities.

How do we reinorce the status o the growing number o completed

Inrastructure Delivery Plans as the essential element in creating a context orthe actual delivery o Neighbourhood Plans and the rest o the LDF? LEPs oer

a potential opportunity to create wider area economic and spatial plans which

balance community needs with inward investment. As presently conceived

these bodies appear to have limited powers and are unlikely to have direct

infuence on housing delivery.

Towards a Toolkit orSustainable DevelopmentThe working group has developed a

series o Brieng Notes that will be

accessible on The Housing Forum

website www.housingorum.org.uk

These will be amended or added to over

time as the Localism Bill progresses,

Neighbourhood Planning, East Brighton

New Deal for Communities -

In 2000-1, NDC residents, 150 adults and

children, were trained as bareoot urban

designers to manage a mass Planning

or Real programme across 15 small

neighbourhood areas, linking placemakingand community development activities.

Photo:SteveMcLaren

and as members develop ways o

operating within the new environment.

The current topics are as ollows:

Making the Case or Development

The UK currently suers rom a huge

housing shortage, especially in terms o

housing genuinely aordable or people

on average and low incomes.


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Housing is needed in sucient

quantities to support economic activity,

attracting and retaining skilled labour in

all parts o the country. Poor quality and

high cost housing generates substantial

opportunity costs or the public purse

in terms o poor health, educational

and public saety outcomes, as well as

excessive and unnecessary housing

benet expenditure and mortgage debt.

The Presumption in Favour o

Sustainable Development

The National Planning Policy Framework

(NPPF) will consolidate existing

planning policy statements, circulars

and guidance documents into a singledocument. The NPPF is expected to

set out that, where there is no local or

Neighbourhood Plan, there will be a

presumption in avour o sustainable

development.

The NPPF will also contain the denition

o sustainable development that is

suciently holistic and robust, so that

high quality development is achieved, in

the right place, ensuring the long term

wellbeing o our communities.

Local Enterprise Partnerships [LEPs],

housing, planning and inrastructure

LEPs are developing in a variety o

ways. There will be dierences across

the country. All will need to develop a

clear understanding o the relationship

between economic prosperity andhousing, the quality o the residential

environment, and the inrastructure

needed or a good quality o lie.

Key issues include:

The impact o a limited range or

poor quality o housing on the

attractiveness o a place

The aordability o housing

relative to salaries o average and

lower paid jobs

The quality o housing to attract

people rom particular sections o

the workorce

The impact o possible

interventions, such as improving

private rented housing

Local Visions and wellbeing outcomes

Localism could provide great

opportunities or community leadership

to create positive and innovative plansor the quality o lie in their place. It

could equally run the risk o opening

up signicant inequalities between

individuals and places without sensible

checks and balances.

A simple test, linked to the 2010

Equalities Act, could ensure air access

to community budgets and eective

accountability or the use o public

money between dierent levels o

government and between dierent

communities and places.

Improved Evidence and Practice

in Strategic Housing Market

Assessments (SHMAs)

The proposed changes to the planning

system will involve the abolition o

regional housing targets, and an

emphasis on bottom up plan making.

Even so, the new regime or allocating

land or housing will have to be basedon evidence relating to both housing

needs and demand, and the way local

markets work. Communities generally

identiy with smaller areas than the



Blissland Community Land Trust, Bodmin Moor, Cornwall- This CLT provides PPS3

compliant permanently aordable housing or local people in high value rural areas. The

Cornish CLTs have been promoted jointly by local communities and landowners, with the

district and parish councils.

Photo

:SteveMcLaren


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housing markets in relation to which

SHMAs must be made. Good and easily

understandable evidence, describing

a localitys signicance in a housing

and economic area, will be essential to

gain acceptance o housing needs and

demand at a very local level.

Inrastructure Finance and Delivery

Even ollowing the Comprehensive

Spending Review, public resources

or civic inrastructure remain largely

unchanged: but this continues to be

signicantly less than what is needed.

We need new ways o:

integrating public and private

investmentensuring that planning provides

certainty sucient to give

investors condence, and

attracting global capital to the UK,

against competition rom other

economies.

However, this must be capital looking

or long term sustainable investment

opportunities that no longer relies on the

speculative and infationary increases in

land prices that have so damaged theeconomy in recent years.

Land Price and Challenges or Valuation

Our uniquely unaordable and volatile

housing market arises rom:

Planning and regulatory

constraints on developable land

Over and now under-supply o

credit

Sustained under-investment in

inrastructureLandowners expectations o short

term capital gain

Anti-development sentiment in

many communities.

Photo: Steve McLaren

Wesley Square Co-ownership Housing, Notting Hill, London - The Housing Corporationwas originally set up to promote co-ownership housing. This 50 home project, built in 1978,

remains a very popular and aordable sel-managed development or amilies and single people

in one o the most expensive parts o London.

UK land costs much more than in

other European countries, and so can

and does damage the economy by

diverting capital to service high levels o

personal and corporate debt in property.

Government should encourage savings

and investment in genuinely wealth

creating production.

Community Housing Opportunities

The community housing sector should

be a signicant contributor to the

Governments ambitions or Localism;

planning, building and managing housing

o all kinds and aordability levels that

meet local needs and demands.

The sector includes co-operatives,

mutuals, co-housing, sel-build,

development trusts, and community land

trusts. They have been the inspiration

or the proposed Neighbourhood Plans

and Community Right to Build. The

sector has a strong track record over

40 years o co-producing well designed

places, with high levels o resident and

neighbour satisaction.

... and nally

The strategic unction o planning as a ramework or integrated

public and private investment and inrastructure delivery did

not work under the last two planning systems, as the work o

this group and its two predecessors has consistently pointed

out. So, it would not be air to criticise the new system or that

shortcoming. The industry must take initiative or creating its own

new and better systems o delivery. Good planning always hashappened, and perhaps can only happen, when people want to do

it despite the system or system reorms. Thats why its Do-It-

Yoursel Planning


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Taking the Pulse

This report examines thecurrent housing market,

particularly the directionthat new home building orlower income households islikely to take. The reportopens with views on thenancial position andaordability in housing andmoves on to considerdelivery.

Responding to the emerging

picture requires resilience

and an agile approach. Thisis examined rom theperspective o housingassociations - as the mainproviders o new aordablehomes, rom developers andcontractors as the builderso homes and majoremployers in the

construction industry andsignals a call or a new

generation in housingmanagement as the natureand customers o the rentedsector are likely to expand.


Major actors include:

Future availability o grant may be linked

to asset disposal and agreed

organisational eciencies and new rent

policies to be set out in the Aordable

Homes Programme. S106 sites may be

unlikely to receive grant in the uture.

A reduced appetite or lending to housing

associations; more expensive and shorter

term private nance acilities, limiting

sales, cross-subsidy and section 106

aordable housing provision. Alternatives,

including industry-led bond schemes and

new models or acilitating development

are likely to come orward.

The need to retain skills across the sector

and put them to good use over next the

2-3 years and keep up momentum in

house building and regeneration to meet

huge demand. In encouraging a broader

perspective, the long term impact o

student grant repayments will be a key

economic driver in the uture, and delay

entry to home ownership. Conversely,

this so called inbetweeners group oers

a uture rental market opportunity.

In November 2010 the Government

announced plans to radically reorm

social housing, including the introduction

o a new type o tenancy. Homes or

aordable rent will be issued on xed

term tenancies, at rents between existing

social rent levels and 80% o market rent.It is expected that housing associations

will convert some o their existing stock

into the new aordable rent product and

invest the uplit in revenue in the provision

Plus Dane - Heath View


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15

o new aordable housing as grant is

signicantly reduced. A new ramework

or the Aordable Homes Programme has

been launched with 4.5bn over the next

4 years to deliver 150,000 new homes,

part unded by a new aordable rent

system o up to 80% market rent.

The extent to which this new model will

create potential to provide or aordable

homes is signicantly dierent in parts o

the country and is likely to work better in

London and the South East, compared to

the Midlands and North.

The Government is committed to

increasing housing supply and believes

that a locally driven approach will bemore successul than imposing top down

targets through mechanisms such as the

Regional Spatial Strategy. It is bringing

orward a number o incentives including

the New Homes Bonus, the Community

Inrastructure Levy and Tax Increment

Financing to encourage local councils

and local communities to support

sustainable development in their

neighbourhood. The Government

believes that these incentives, alongside

changes to the planning system to allow

communities to shape their

neighbourhoods through Neighbourhood

Plans and Community Right to Build, will

stop the planning process being so

conrontational. Do It Yoursel Planning

and Delivery in a Localist World our

rst report covers this area.

Most developing housing associations

are re-examining business plans and

assumptions in order to predict the likely

balance in terms o cost, houses

produced and uture risk. This is by no

means a uniorm process as it clearly

depends on a range o individual starting

points, making predictions o actual

homes to be delivered uncertain.

The Issues

Finance

Larger housing associations have

access to the bond markets or xed

rate long term nance, whilst smaller

housing associations can access unds

through conduits such as The Housing

Finance Corporation. Banks are more

reluctant to lend than in the past partly

due to the large loss making legacyloans which they seek to re-nance but

also new regulatory and liquidity rules

which make it more dicult or them to

commit to the longer term. That said,

nance can be obtained, although

housing associations may need to

accept shorter terms o say 5-10 years

and ace, as in the commercial market, a

re-nance risk.

Funds raised rom aordable rent could

unlock extra money or development,

but it very much depends on local

conditions.

Banks are less interested in the sector

than they were, and demanding higher

returns on their investment and are not

fexible. This is dicult or small housing

associations; however, some larger

associations have extended bonds on

lower interest rates e.g. a 10 year

foating pot that is then re-priced.

Index linked returns can make social

rent attractive or investment.

There is low mortgage availability and

higher interest or those mortgages that

are being approved.

Moving to a revenue based model

(aordable rent) can signicantly aectthe nancial gearing o housing

associations, which will present risk and

regulatory issues.

Aordability

In the process o delivering more

housing, there is an enduring tension

between subsidising new buildings;

subsidising households/households

paying more or their housing; and the

standard o new housing. These three

actors pull against each other and at

the centre o the tension is the question

o the aordability o housing or

households.

Local councils will be required to have a

Strategic Policy on Tenancies which

could provide an Aordability Policy or

a local area. The strategy is required by

2012 but bids or grants have to be in by

the end o April 2011.bpha - Mawsley Village, Northants


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New Supply - The Providers

Perspective

The context o wider public unding cuts

means that there will be other competing

calls on housing association budgets

e.g. Supporting People unding and

crime prevention measures. Finding

neighbourhood solutions to these

challenges will be crucial or housing

associations and the neighbourhoods

they serve.

A more fexible approach to

development in lower value areas is

needed. This may be on the basis o

higher grant levels, or fexibility around

geographies, or other measures.

The decision on whether to develop, and

i so, what proportion o budgets will be

allocated to development versus other

competing demands will be taken by

housing association boards. There is a

need to ensure they are well inormed

and equipped to assess the opportunity

and risk. Protecting the value o assets

in management (existing stock) is also a

key actor in a re-nancing strategy.

There is a need or local councils senior

ocers and particularly politicians to

understand the new aordable rent

development model, and its implications

or their area.

The Government is committed to

publishing a Local Standards Framework

by April 2012. It hopes to help councils

and the housebuilding industry working

together to develop a simple and costed

menu o standards that local councilscan choose to apply that will not place

unrealistic burdens on developers. A

working group has been set up which

includes representation rom The

Housing Forum to consider how to take

this issue orward and how to address

issues such as ownership o standards,

enorcement and viability.

The Housing Forum welcomes the

proposal to simpliy existing standards

and regulation and calls on both central

and local Government to ensure that the

ramework is suciently robust to

prevent additional layers o regulations

being applied at a local level through

planning documents or planning

conditions. The Housing Forum also

welcomes the proposal to ensure that

standards are consistent across private

and publicly owned land.

New Supply - The Developers

Perspective

The role o the HCA as enabler is crucial

when working with councils that do not

have in-house skills.

Many councils have underutilised land

holdings and there are opportunities

here or low cost home ownership/

shared ownership development which

may not rely on grant. Several

organisations are developing sub-market

models with equity retained by the land

holder which can be viewed as a (longer

term) increasing asset and a way o

meeting local needs.


British Precast (Courtesy o Interpave Permeable Paving)


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17

There is a need to renegotiate planning

on many sites now as the housing mix is

not viable at the moment. Much greater

fexibility is needed to make new

schemes viable.

In joint ventures, the risk prole

increases - this relates to the capacity o

the developer, and the skills and levels

o sharing risk and investment. In shared

ownership models, land can be

contributed as equity. Conversely

housing associations looking to develop

private sale and market rent products, to

underpin their aordable housing

programmes will harness the experience

o developers to orm a mutually

benecial partnership.

New orms o partnering need to be agile

enough to deliver and take account o

the ollowing to assist in delivering real

value to the process:

OJEU Compliant2 - there needs to

be more work done to streamline

this process to make it t

construction, make it ecient and

reduce waste.

Tenants want to be heard

and infuence and to see the

delivery o homes that are o high

quality, deect ree, easy to use,

unctional and fexible through

their occupation lie time with an

ater sales service that exceeds

their expectations and a place that

eels like home.

Housing associations will want to ensure

on time, on budget, high quality,

schemes that deliver the best

sustainable solutions budgets can aord

- easily maintainable with minimal

impact on lie cycle cost and ultimatelyresident / tenant satisaction.

Continuous improvement and the

delivery o lean processes coupled with

a smooth journey rom inception to

completion due to excellent team

working and supply engagement are

also key actors.

From a community perspective residents

will want to see the upgrade o

acilities which in turn will have a positive

impact on the their local environment,

improving the quality o lie. They will

want to be involved in ensuring that

2 New Procurements Policy Action Note - PAS

91:2010 Construction Related Procurement -

Pre Qualifcation Questionnaires.

projects not only attract new people but

ensure that existing communities are

preserved and are socially and

economically sustainable. This in turn

will create opportunities or jobs, assist

local businesses and SMEs andthereore develop the impetus to invest

and deliver long term positive social and

economic benets.

Gaining perceived value or money

through the supply chain has been a

ocus o a number o rameworks and

partnering arrangements over recent

years, with varying degrees o success.

One good example to achieving a number

o the targets highlighted in the above is

the National Change Agency (NCA)

Programme which during its delivery has

seen substantial eciency savings and

substantial community benets.

Catalyst Housing Group - Oaklands Court Roo Garden, Hammersmith


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Housing Management Expertise

Housing management as a whole has a

new challenge to rise to encouraging/

enabling more mobile communities will

need an imaginative and pro-active

approach to area management. There

are benets in mobility, particularly as it

can release under-occupied amily

housing predominantly occupied by

older people. Anticipating these

opportunities and preparing to manage

the outcomes will require housing

management to work in new ways.

How do housing associations respond

to new markets the socially mobile

may be the ideal market or aordable

rent and o value to uture businesssecurity. How is this approach

reconciled with a social enterprise model

which prioritises those in greatest

housing need?

Another issue is what type o social

renting will there be in the uture - our

perspective is that we need to provide

rented housing through a range o rental

options.

We need to take a more assertive view

who is the new product or? In these

circumstances, with the introduction o

new opportunities we should be

opening up lists not closing them

down. This approach allows all providers

to better understand consumer choice

and preerence in a housing market.

Issues

Many housing associations are

experienced delivery partners anddemand or most types o housing is

huge, diverse and growing.


New fexibilities in rents will give some

capacity to carry on developing and

oer entry into new markets and

customers.

As well as building and reurbishing

homes, many housing associations

combine substantial investment in our

neighbourhoods through new homes,

reurbishment, reinvestment, job

creation, enterprise and commercial

activities - it is this type o community

development that has long term benets

but is likely to be currently under threat

due to budget restrictions.

Bringing empty homes back into use,

diversiying tenure o existing socialrented stock, will all be really positive

initiatives, i done in conjunction with

increasing new supply, both aordable

and other.

Developing retrot and Green Deal

programmes is an opportunity or

housing associations to work with

supply chain or larger contractors as

local delivery agents.

The imperative to build homes or much

less is now upon us and a more

industrialised house building industry

can play a part. As a sector we have not

ully realised the savings and eciencies

we had hoped or through rameworks

and supply chains. Necessity will orce

some radical new approaches.

In changed market places,

there is scope to encourage

initiatives like the private rented

sector, sel build and co-

housing, which may be limited

in numbers but encourage a

range o provision.

Galliford Try- Epsom Clusters, Epsom


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Hill Partnerships -

Claredale Street, Bethnal Green


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20


the true cost o longevity

Time or a step change?

It is time or a total stepchange in the way older

people view housing andhealth and the role that theythemselves play in openingup their options.

Strategic Housing MarketAssessments are passingthis by and there is a uturecost to individuals and animpact on accommodationproviders that needs ocus.

The Housing Forums view is

that there is an opportunityopening up to provide or anew market in older personshousing but that this willrequire a step change inapproach, characterised by:

Supported housing developments

oering communal acilities are

likely to be much larger and

integrated with communities

through sharing services to

achieve commercial viability.

Active retirement housing will be

in urban locations at the centre o

towns so that communal provision

is minimised as the acilities

residents need are easily

accessible.

Aordable housing provision will

be increasingly developmentdriven and delivered through

mixing tenure - possibly 70:30

purchase to rental.

Where we are now

Whilst there are some attractive

retirement developments or those that

can aord them and there has beensubsidy or social rented sheltered

accommodation, there is very little on

oer to the inbetweeners. They

represent the majority o older people

living in privately owned medium priced

amily homes on mid-to-low incomes

with limited savings or pension

arrangements. The housing association

sector has not yet addressed this in any

major way and as business models o

providers and builders have to alter to

deal with rapid changes in unding and

planning regimes, there is an opportunity

or the sector to widen its appeal to

large numbers o older households.

The Dilnott Review The Commission

on the Funding o Care and Support,

due to report mid 2011, acknowledges

that there is a lack o understanding that

social care is not ree at the point o use

and consequently, people do not

generally plan or prepare or uture carecosts. An aordable solution or later lie

needs to consider both capital and care

costs: in this respect, aordable

accommodation could, or many, mean

downsizing in order to release equity

rom their existing properties.

Most o us (85% - 90%) will opt to stay

in our own homes or as long as

possible or until a move is orced upon

us through ill-health, bereavement or

other actors. Providing care and

support to enable staying put must

thereore remain central to our ocus and

although, with longer term care costs

actored in, this is oten not the most

cost eective solution. Around 30% o

our amily housing stock is under-

occupied by couples or single older

people and this trend is set to escalate

PRP Kidbrooke, Blackheath, London.

WINNER 2010 Housing Design Awards,

HAPPI Project Scheme. Attractive apartments

at the heart o a new residential quarter close

to shopping and transport network. The

Community HUB will provide inormation

and acilities or residents and the wider

community.


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sharply unless attractive alternatives can

be oered. Appropriate housing or older

people is thereore not a peripheral

issue. It is ast becoming one o our

major challenges in terms o mainstream

housing supply.

When people choose to downsize it is

generally on the basis o attractive, good

quality and more practical

accommodation oering a liestyle

alternative in the right locations.

Evidence suggests, however, that this is

in very short supply.

Accessible Neighbourhoods

The concept o the accessible neigh-

bourhoods is also key to aordability.

This extends inclusive design principles

beyond the home to a community that

provides within easy reach, all the usual

acilities o everyday lie.

Evidence has shown that, given the

choice, older people do not tend to

move ar rom the communities and

neighbourhoods with which they are

amiliar. In act, many o us choose to

return to our roots. The interace with a

amiliar community also acilitates

voluntary support and care assistance

by riends and relatives.

We need to urgently look or innovative

new ways o enabling people to make

appropriate housing and care provision

or themselves as they get older - and

these choices need to be care ready

to acilitate home based support. There

are many dierent issues to be

considered, across the housing and care

spectrum, to make our uture housing

and care more aordable (see below).

The diagram illustrates, very broadly, the our

housing/care options available to us as we get

older with a fth in the orm o a Continuing

Care Community - where a combination o

two or more o these options are

co-located in a development.

Developments can vary widely within each

o these categories in terms o their care

regimes, housing typologies, scale andtenure.

The diagram shows how a range o

move motivators change as we get older

Mainstream Housing

Sheltered Housing /Retirement Villages etc.

Assisted Living / Extra Care

Care Home / Nursing Home /Dementia Care Home

Continuing Care Community

Move Motivators

Hung & C Mdl Hung typlg

50 60 70 80 90The Housing & Care Spectrum

LocationLiestyle choiceConvenience/DownsizingEquity releaseSecurityInheritance

SecurityBereavementSocial IsolationLiestyle ChoiceCare & SupportHealth

HealthAccidentDementiaSecuritySocial IsolationCare NeedsBereavement

Staying put with Home Care

Independent Livingwith Home Care

Supported Housing with

fexible care on site

Care/Nursing 24 Hour Care

Continuing Care Community

depending on our needs and circumstances

and how these inuence our decision whether

to move, and i so, to what sort o housing.

Few o us are likely to make more than

one move. Thereore each housing/care

setting needs to be exible and oer, as ar

as is possible, a home or lie to delay the

need to move to more expensive and less

desirable institutional care in nursing homesor hospitals.

For instance, those o us who choose to

stay put should be enabled to do so by

aids and adaptations to their homes and

exible home-care services. The longer we

leave the decision to move, the more likely

it will be a orced move to a care/nursing

home or hospital as a result o an accident or

emergency.

On the other hand, those who might choose

an earlier liestyle move to a care-ready

independent living apartment in an activeretirement community, should be more easily

supported and cared or within

the development.


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Aordability later in lie raises 6 critical issues, all predicated on much wider

engagement with older people:

Communities and partnerships must work at local level, with closer

collaboration between Housing, Health and Social Care and by orging links

between the voluntary and private sectors working across the housing andcare spectrum.

Innovation in unding new capital and revenue unding solutions are needed

or unding housing and care that include releasing equity in property.

Review the way in which we procure new development to promote innovation

to avoid very costly procedures. The review should include exploring cost

eective design solutions, osite construction methods, more integrated

building management, energy eciency and care monitoring technology.

Current housing models and standards need to vary to maximise value or

money and ensure that our housing is fexible and adaptable in order to delay

the need to move into costly, high care institutions.

Optimise and recycle our building stock or uture use and maximise the

potential o existing property through asset management programmes that

can generate cross-subsidy and development opportunities.

Address barriers in planning and land issues.

Communities and Partnerships

I we are to provide sustainable

solutions, we need to better engage with

cohorts o older people (rom 50 - 110

years o age) in their communities to

better understand their housing and care

experiences, needs and aspirations,

improve the availability and quality

o local advice and inormation and

encourage their greater participation in

local strategic planning and design o

housing.

The localism agenda makes good sense

in the context o housing and caring

or older people. The prole o ourageing population is as diverse as the

wider population in terms o wealth and

poverty, needs and aspirations, social

and cultural diversity. Local solutions

that acknowledge this diversity and

embrace local communities in the

planning and delivery process to meet

local needs are thereore essential.

The shit towards localism places

councils centre-stage in the decision

making and strategic planning process.

I localism is to deliver, local councils

must take the lead in establishing and

meeting the needs and aspirations

o their older people across both the

public and private sectors, through an

adequate housing assessment that

includes the wider community.

I we are to provide sustainable

solutions, we need to better engage

with cohorts o older people in their

communities. Equally important and

in the context o localism is greater

involvement o communities themselves

in nding locations or older peoples

housing.

A strategic plan/ramework should

be adopted by each local council

to establish partnerships with local

developers, voluntary agencies and

charities to provide or the physical,

housing and care needs o its older

residents, rom the adaptation o

individual homes or improved mobility

to the development o community-based

resource centres. This should be bedded

in with the new GP led regimes in health

planning which oer the opportunity or

health, housing and social care to driveaordable housing in a local context to

meet specic needs.

Innovation in Funding

Many public sector extra care housing

developments are already reliant on

mixing tenure and the cross-subsidies

that can be generated by the private

sale and shared ownership elements o

a project in order to deliver aordable

rental accommodation.

I we are to address the large

inbetweener market, we need to very

much broaden our oer in terms o

tenure and housing and care packages.

For those property owners that hold

substantial equity in their properties,

equity-release unding models are

becoming more readily available, and

private equity companies are starting

to specialise in this area to enablepeople to draw down capital unding or

alternative housing and revenue unding

or their care needs.




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23

Developments that cover all uture

housing and care costs against

insurance premiums, either in the orm

o a lump sum at the start o occupancy

or included in monthly service charges,

are likely to become more common.

Some providers oer an annuity against

care costs that add about 40k in

cost at the start, leaving the capital

untouched.

Alternative revenue unding streams can

support mixed unding models in the

orm o commercial rents rom a range o

complementary uses rom pharmacies

to health clubs.

Co-housing, where a group o peoplecollaborate to und and develop

new homes collectively, is a model

which is well developed in Europe

and Scandinavia but relatively new in

this country. The major obstacle here

would appear to be in securing suitable

sites and bridge unding to enable site

purchase and development costs.

Procurement Costs & Standardising

the Product

We need to move on rom costlyprocurement methods, to demonstrate

value or money to the public sector

through competition. More ecient and

workable alternatives which achieve

good value without costly and wasteul

procurement methods are needed.

Aordable housing providers should be

encouraged to consider more market-

based models and be permitted to move

away rom EU procurement legislationwhich prevents creative partnerships

and/or joint ventures with contractors.

Some contractors now are keen to oer

a more fexible approach to working with

aordable providers, including sharing

risk on sales and deerring construction

payments, to enable schemes to be

developed more cost eectively.

Regeneration schemes have or some

time relied on private development butare nevertheless subject to the OJEU

process or the selection o partners. We

need to move towards a position where

providers can develop schemes on

their own initiative with around 70%

private sale and 30% aordable rent

or whatever mix can be shown to be

required in a given locality with no grant.

We also need greater standardisation

in terms o layouts and dwelling types

with greater repetition, more rationalised

building orms and detailing to enable

cost eective design that acilitates

osite manuacture o larger elements or

volumetric construction solutions.Extra Care Charitable Trust - Village at New Oscott, Birmingham

One Housing Group - Roden Court, Crouch End N6 Extra Care Scheme


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Current Housing Models

Staying Put

In order to acilitate staying put, aids and

adaptations to existing properties will be

required in conjunction with fexible home

care services. At the same time, newhomes must be built to more inclusive

design standards.

The Lietime Homes Standards currently

dene the criteria or inclusive design:

however there is a case or a urther

review o these standards to ensure that

the right balance is achieved between

inclusivity and aordability. Alternatively,

a new set o minimum standards could

be included within the Local Standards

Framework.

Assistive technology, such as liestyle

monitoring (e.g. telecare), together

with a new generation o mobility aids

such as mobility scooters will become

increasingly important in supporting us to

live independently in our own homes.

Independent Living

This is the broad term or retirement or

sheltered housing where older peoplecan live independently but together in the

community. For this oer to be attractive

or downsizing, it must oer good quality,

spacious, care ready accommodation

and should aspire to meeting the

recommendations as set out in the HAPPI

report3.

We need to explore new typologies or

Independent Living developments such

as higher density urban core & cluster

apartment blocks, high rise towers, deck/

gallery access developments etc, in order

to oer a new Baby Boomer generation

o older people a genuine choice o

locations and liestyles and to avoid the

stereotyping o older peoples housingthat we have become so amiliar with.

I Independent Living schemes are to be

attractive to younger older people, they

must oer a range o tenure to saeguard

the residents nancial investment and

control through participation in the

management o the development. Co-

housing could represent the ultimate

solution in this regard.

Extra Care/Assisted Living

A range o actors have combined to

challenge the viability o the current

extra care model where, on average, the

communal, support and circulation space

accounts or some 40% o the gross foor

area.

With the decline in the numbers o

Residential Care and Nursing Home

places, there is a trend or local councils

reerring railer and more dependentresidents to extra care accommodation.

This can undermine the balance in

resident dependency needed to maintain

a vibrant and active community. As the

resident group ages, the communal

acilities become under-used and the

accommodation becomes less attractive

to more active older people.

The extra care model thereore needs to

be adapted to become more aordable

and responsive to its local context.

Developments should be larger to

justiy a range o communal acilities

and should be better located relative

to local acilities, local community and

transport. I this is achieved the acilities

and services provided can be designed

to avoid duplication and be shared witholder people rom the wider community.

Continuing Care & Resource Centres:

Community Care HUBS

We need to reocus our local provision

to cater or the rapidly increasing

numbers o much older people and

those with dementia. In doing so, we

should consider the eciencies that can

be delivered through continuing care

developments and community HUBS

that draw together a range o housing

and care typologies on one site or in

close proximity and thereby provide a

base rom which the needs o people in

the wider community can be serviced.

A HUB can provide a community-based

care delivery acility where the combined

eorts o housing, health and adult care

teams can be co-ordinated. Day Care,

Rehabilitation (Intermediate Care) and

Respite Accommodation are urtherelements that could be included in order

to provide assistance to amilies and

spouses who are caring or their relatives

at home.



Longhurst Group - St. Peters Way, West

Lindsey, Lincs

3 HAPPI Housing our Ageing Population : Panel or Innovation

www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/housing-ageing-population-panel-innovation.htm


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A HUB can also include a Resource

Centre where inormation is assembled,

held and disseminated to local residents

regarding housing and care services

in the vicinity. This should ideally be

planned as a drop-in acility, linked to a

ca or other attraction and well located

or passing trade.

Optimise and recycle our

building stock

With the current shortage o capital

unding or new housing development,

it is essential that we careully review

our existing housing stock so that we

optimise its use. This process should

also examine how housing that is

currently not meeting the needs o one

user group might be adapted at minimal

cost to meet the needs o another.

Re-using and remodelling existing

buildings should be actively promoted

and acilitated by government policy

and unding. It should not be penalised

through taxation as is currently the case

through attracting ull VAT.

An essential aspect o remodelling mustinclude upgrading the abric to improve

energy eciency. With rising energy costs

this is already a critical issue in terms o

aordability or many older people who

spend a much greater proportion o their

time at home and are more susceptible to

extremes in temperature.

Local councils and housing providers

need to be more strategic in their

asset management to maximise

housing development opportunities

through stock review, land disposal,

cross-subsidies, intensication and

redevelopment.

Address barriers in planning

and land issues

Planning policy itsel can constitute

a major obstacle to the delivery o

housing with care provision alling as it

does between the C2 (institutional) andC3 (residential) use classes. The latter

can attract section 106 requirements

requiring o-site contributions or

aordable housing or other planning

gain that can render developments

with substantial communal provision

unviable. As a consequence, the

planning process becomes very

protracted, expensive and raught with

risk or developers o retirement housing.

Land costs also present a signicant

obstacle or the developer o older

persons housing due to the diculty

in competing with housebuilders

on the open market when the

product includes a very signicant

proportion o communal and support

accommodation. Rather than simply

disposing o their land to maximise a

capital receipt, local councils should

take a longer term view in terms o the

social and nancial benets to their

constituents by allocating sites or older

peoples housing at the heart o their

neighbourhoods. The RICS is currently

drating a new guide in its Public Asset

Management series, on disposals at less

than best consideration. The guide will

specically address this issue.

Conclusions

Provision o appropriate housing will

enhance the lives and help to meet the

aspirations o many older people and

at the same time can help to address

the severe shortage o amily housing

whilst also serving as a catalyst or the

regeneration o communities.

North Hertfordshire Homes - Sheltered Housing Tenants Forum

In the absence o signifcant

uture public sector unding,

the housing industry has to fnd

innovative ways o unding and

delivering housing and care. This

is a huge challenge but it also

represents a major opportunity

or housing developers,

investors and unders to develop

new models or attractive,

sustainable and care ready

housing or a growing market.


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Routes to Community

Scale Retroft

The Route

Where previous HousingForum reports4 have

examined the costs andbenets o sustainableretrots to individual housetypes, Routes to CommunityScale Retrot charts thestep changes needed toprepare or retrot at scale.

Our approach is toanticipate the practical andoperational consequences

on housing providers,

contractors and the supplychain as undingarrangements change rom2013 onwards. We set out inthis report theconsiderations which needto be in place as we arelikely to move to arepayment method or

retrot and as technologyallows or community scale

solutions.

Our view is that the route to community

level retrot is a constant process which

diers rom earlier mass programmes

like decent homes. This will require a

re-engineering o approaches to asset

management which may be unding led

or technology led and a realignment o

the interests between dierent

stakeholders.

We have set out the route by:

A brie examination o the policy oothold

Mapping unding sources

Outlining the economics o retrot

Charting the fow o retrot measures rom individual buildings to

community scale

Considering motivation

Setting out how technical and unding routes lead to dierent outcomes

Taking the right route: compatibility and prioritising

and made the ollowing Conclusions and Recommendations:

The subject o retrot to housing is infuenced as much by the motivations o

residents and proessional organisations as by the technologies involved or theeconomics o investment returns. These motivations can be infuenced by tax

incentives, but the balance between specic, coercive obligations on proessional

bodies and cultural or nancial incentives has yet to be struck.

Inormation availability and exchange is a critical driver o uture behaviour.

Thus, the growth o smart metering, tari fexibility and easy measurement

is considered important. In addition, publication o Energy Perormance

Certicates (EPC) or other dwelling measurements to a wider audience would

assist the sharing o knowledge.

Energy supply companies have current obligations (CERT Carbon Emissions

Reduction Target and CESP Community Energy Saving Programme) and

incentives and the Green Deal unding proposal which is designed to ollow

can potentially play a key role in uture retrot. As with other sources o

upront nance or long term benet, this can include underwriting appliance

perormance as, or example, end o lie residual value. However, such single

dwelling unding may not be ecient as a delivery mechanism or community-

wide initiatives where carbon reductions may be higher.

Community level landlords (local councils and housing associations) have

obligations and drivers to continue to improve stock. Many have already

developed initiatives designed to make retrot progress (e.g. Sustainable

Housing Action Partnerships (SHAP) in the West Midlands). These initiatives,although varying across dierent areas, are seen as an appropriate model

or unding and implementation on a community scale but large enough to

achieve scale economies.

4 Sustainable Improvement o the Existing

Stock 2008 and Sustainable Reurbishment

o the Existing Stock 2009

www.housingforum.org.uk


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The policy oothold

This working group has explored the

issues raised by the challenge to

improve the sustainability credentials o

the existing housing stock oten

reerred to as Retrot. This report setsout a wider approach to retrot prepared

to take advantages o a new era.

The subject o retrot to the existing

stock is still fuid and has not yet

crystallised as clearly as the codication

o newbuild standards. As a result, this

report addresses the options, the

pressures and the uncertainties.

All actions taken in respect o retrot should refect the uncertainty which

surrounds the uture values o energy, carbon, prices, etc. This is an area in

which individual actions taken on property can easily result in distorted or

perverse outcomes.

There is a hierarchy o retrot improvement which avours Fabric First.

This fows rom the breadth o the overall carbon reduction agenda which

encompasses dierent and unknown carbon improvements rom areas

other than the built environment, or example that embedded in energy

sources. As a result, a whole house zero carbon approach which does not

take into account uture fuctuations and improvements in the carbon rating o

uture energy sources will almost certainly ail to achieve eective investment

returns. However, under almost all scenarios, improvements to insulation

and abric will contribute to carbon reduction. Fabric improvement is the built

environments special and unique contribution.

Fusion21


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Routes to Community

Scale Retroft

The policy oothold or this subject

stems rom the requirement to achieve

an 80% reduction in emissions o

carbon rom existing homes by 2050.

However, carbon is a new commodity

with, as yet, limited useable credentials

when compared with, say, energy or

money. In addition, the division o this

goal between the supply side (energy)

and the demand side (usage) or between

consumption volumes and eciency

gain remains hazy. Each o these can be

considered in areas which are outside

this brie, e.g. uel pricing,

decarbonisation o uel or renewables;

newbuild code improvements and the

wider social and user behaviour.

Mapping unding sources

The unding environment is set to

change with the arrival o Green Deal

and Pay As You Save models. This in

tandem with the new supplier obligation

rom 2013 onwards, means that retrot

project sources o unding will change.

This may impact on what, where, and

how retrot can be unded. Specically

where projects cross over this transition

some reprogramming or restructuringmay be necessary.

Fund Name Dates unding

available

Measures covered by unding

CERT (Carbon

Emissions

Reduction Target)

April 2008

December 2012

Insulation measures

CESP (Community

Energy Saving

Programme)

September 2009

December 2012

Fabric measures

District heating

Heating systems

Other micro-generation

Home energy advice

FiT (Feed in Tari) April 2010

onwards. Taris

will reduce rom

2012 as capital

costs reduce

Solar PV

Wind turbines

Micro gas CHP

Hydro power

Anaerobic digestion

gas generators

RHI (Renewable

Heat Incentive)

Expected rom

June 2011

The ollowing included in the

consultation:

Biomass boilers

Air source heat pumps

Ground/water source heat pumps

Bio-liquid boiler

Biogas

ESCo (Energy

Services

Company)

Set up or each

project

Large combined heat power

District heat networks

Existing buildings where investmentscan be unded by uture energy

savings

ERDF (European

Regional

Development

Fund) Projects

The current period

2007-2013

Medium scale retrot projects

Other Regional

Grants

Funding windows

are constantly

opening and

closing

Medium scale retrot projects

Examples include:

Wood fuel infrastructure grants 50%

up to 100,000

Bio-energy Capital Grants Community Sustainable Energy

Programme (CSEP) 50% up to

50,000 or community renewable

energy schemes

Funding Sources Pre 2013


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Fund Name Dates unding

available

Measures covered by unding

Green Deal PAYS

(Pay as you Save

models)

From Autumn

2012

The Green Deal will support all approved

measures which meet the golden rule

(savings should exceed the repayment

charge and the charge should be repaid

over their lietime o the measure ater

any energy company subsidy/optional

householder contribution is included).

The list o approved measures is yet to

be decided.

New Energy

Company

Obligation

From 2013 when

CERT and CESP

expire at the end

o 2012

Supplement the Green Deal and provide

unding to:

Hard to treat properties (such as solid

wall insulation)

The fuel poor

Allowable Solutions

(rom zero carbon

homes policy)

Trials rom 2013

with ull scale

roll out rom

2016

Local or national low carbon energy

inrastructure, export o heat rom the

site, the retrot o other buildings in the

locality o the development

Funding Sources Post 2013

Hyde Housing / calfordseaden LLP -

Forshore, Deptord

Methods o Delivery

Funding will aect the way in which

retrot is delivered. Dierent approaches

within dierent units, tenure patterns and

areas could lead to ull retrot over aperiod o time be it on a technically led

whole house, unding led approach or

area based (street by street area based

or pepper potted) delivery pattern.

Outlining the economicso retrot

Role o the Landlord

The economics and unding o individual

or larger scale retrots are inter-

dependent upon a wide range o actors

many o which are considered under

motivations o other relevant parties and

technology options. Octavia Housing - Peel House

The ownership and tenure patterns o

stock will vary rom location to location

and this may well determine the role

landlords perceive or themselves in the

implementation, delivery and scale o

retrot programmes. Are they passengers

or one o the drivers, or example by

becoming a Green Deal provider?

Mapping the Issues

The economics o retrot will dier

across a wide range o variables but to

determine these it is necessary to align

and overlay a series o issues relating to

the stock characteristics, existing

programmes, available unding and

timescales to determine which unding

combinations would be most suitable

and how they might be delivered.


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In fgure 1,a landlords existing stock is shown by the yellow oval. Such overlaying

may result in the re-scheduling o existing work programmes, represented by the

blue bar, to align with available nance represented by the green oval. However,

ollowing available unding to deliver retrot can lead to unexpected and unwanted

consequences.

Throughout the periods under

consideration, typically 15-25 years, the

sources o unding will change. The

current picture is becoming clear but

there is a denitive watershed at the end

o current supplier obligation

arrangements and the start o the new

Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and

the Green Deal and this i

Documents

The Housing Forum Everyone Needs a Home 070411