Devo-Shift - the key to the housing revolution

The housing crisis can only be resolved with radical thinking and a new systemic approach. 

The devolution agenda gives us a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shift how we think about and deliver homes for the complex needs of our society. Needs which if not met, lead to the spiralling negative impacts of poor, overcrowded or non-existent housing: dire physical and mental health, irreversibly poor educational outcomes, worklessness, poverty, increased crime .... and the culmination of these is near-bankrupt local authorities and crumbling health, education and criminal justice systems. 

Conversely, good housing underpins every facet of a well-functioning society as well as driving the local economy. 

Good homes - designed to be sustainable, affordable, accessible, adaptable, future-proofed and inherently healthy - will save billions and generate billions. This win:win is not rocket science. 

Devolution will facilitate the long-term, regional focus required to meet local needs at scale:

• Map and log available public land across all boroughs in the combined authority or city region. Be aware that difficult or inaccessible sites may be developable for certain uses. Land will be brought forward at zero or minimal capital cost. Land value can be offset against emergency and temporary housing costs. Many sites will not have a balance sheet value. 
• Undertake a detailed needs-analysis to ensure archetypes are scoped and quantified appropriately. 
• Devise a patternbook that will rationalise housing types whist ensuring all occupant needs can be met. 
• Mandate presumption in favour to expedite planning within pre-agreed parameters with planning applications by exception. 
• Mandate Future Homes Plus, Passivhaus or Ultra Low Carbon design to ensure all homes are future-proofed, low energy, healthy and genuinely affordable to live in. 
• Create the skills matrix and ensure all jobs are delivered locally via targeted recruitment and training, partnerships with RPs' community teams, FE Colleges and other charities and training providers. 
• Establish flying factories in communities to deliver ultra low carbon panels to ensure speed of delivery augmented by traditional trades to complete the housing; the perfect mix of offsite and onsite for quality and flexibility. 
• Assign homes to appropriate stock-holding bodies including RPs, ALMOs, charities etc with a covenant to ensure these properties cannot be sold under right to buy or any other market or policy mechanism. This assignment could be under direct sale to the social landlord, lease or lease purchase or any other secure approach. 
• The business case can be justified by offsetting emergency and temporary accommodation costs as well as monetising the indirect costs to the local economy of inadequate housing, health, education and crime costs as well as loss of local and national taxes from low pay, unemployment and worklessness. 
• Funding - if there are no land costs or developer profit and reduced/no planning risk then we can deliver genuinely affordable housing at potentially half the price (and considerably improved performance and design) than the current market mechanisms of S106. There are many ways the design and build element can be covered:

* Government grant - including affordable homes grant and social finance fund

* Registered providers' capital 

* Public sector pension funds

* Community Housing Bonds

* Carbon & Social Value Trading 

*  Specialist ESG funds and investors

* Institutional funds looking for social impact

* Private wealth and philanthropic funds with patient capital

* Lease-back against the savings from emergency and temporary costs. 

• Ensure all new homes are not only energy-efficient but flood and over-heating resistant, with enhanced biodiversity and nature-based solutions aligned with net zero communities and designed for ease of asset management 
• Support community-led housing so the patternbook and trained trades can work with co-owners or self-builders too.