‘On social housing, we are in danger of pulling up the ladder’

The collapse of affordability and supply of suitable housing not only causes misery to those left out, but it is arguably the single most powerful determinant of economic stagnation, labour immobility, cost-of-living crises, inequality and poverty in the UK.

Let’s reflect upon some of the human consequences, as this summer through five heat-waves, whole families including almost 200,000 children were often jammed in one room with nowhere to play, sharing kitchen, bathroom and toilet facilities. This is the state of much so-called ‘temporary accomodation.’Appalling, wretched, stressful, unhealthy, inhumane conditions, with no end in sight.

An utterly shameful Tory legacy which is now our responsibility to fix.

There are political consequences across whole communities as economic deprivation and prolonged insecurity engender anger and alienation – the breeding ground for populism, hate and division. Also, failure costs.

READ MORE: ‘Spirit of ’45 – social housing at scale’

We need thousands of Council/ Social Rent homes. Andy Burnham – our new Prime Minister – wants Council Houses as a priority alongside his top priority-ending homelessness.

The Treasury allocated £39 billion for 1.5 million houses over 5 years, plus recently, funding targeting homelessness. So, why don’t we get on with it?

Well some are already doing great work,’green shoots’ are visible. 

The problem, however, is one of scale. As indicated above, thousands and thousands are needed and in short order.

Sadly the national picture is that building council houses is grinding to a halt. Clearly, not helped by growing evidence of an impasse with big private developers. Plus, there is also the major problem of significant traditional building skill shortages. 

The Impasse 

Building genuinely affordable homes, especially socially rented housing, has become stalled as ‘unviable’ (i.e. not sufficiently profitable) to major private developers. Unviable is always the developers excuse for not delivering promised affordable housing and/or infrastructure.

Last autumn Sky News reported that since the election, 275,000 homes have been delivered, compared to the 400,000 needed to be on track for 1.5 million homes.

Rising building costs and weakening house prices left “half of the country unviable (for development projects) and the other half of the country unaffordable” said Steve Turner, Executive Director, Home Builders Federation (HBF).

In June the Guardian highlighted the flatlining of Social Housing completions and growing need, saying ‘Research shows …it would take more than a century to clear the social housing waiting lists in England at the government’s current speed of delivering new social homes”

Meanwhile, just weeks ago The Independent reported surging profit warnings among housebuilders. 

The writing ‘is on the wall’: If we continue to rely so heavily on the big private developers, they will ask for a massive public subsidy to proceed – that is, assuming they can get the workforce. 

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But, is this the effective way forward, or is it now time for government to embrace a broader approach?

Now must be the time for unlocking the huge potential of SME’s across the UK currently manufacturing Modular Passivhaus dwellings – modern, high quality, high tech, energy efficient prefabs? 

Also, the government, via The National Housing Bank, should be making significant investment, via newly devolved mayoralties and unitary authorities into setting up publicly, community and co-operatively owned factories.

Factories for manufacturing and assembling genuinely affordable homes to rent and buy in the postcodes where they are most needed. Which, incidentally, would bypass many of the traditional building skills shortages.

Can it Be Done? 

Well,have done it before, and successfully, when Attlee and Bevan created a ‘prefabs’ revolution in the austere aftermath of WW2. Since then there have been huge advances in relevant technology, and funding is already set aside and waiting to be allocated.

We now have, in Andy Burnham, a Labour and Co-operative Prime Minister. So this is the opportunity to boldly involve our co-operators and bring those values into the heart of our mission. 

We should, therefore, make at least one of our New Towns a Co-operative (Friendly) New Town.

Learn from the national and international success of Co-operative Housing Projects.

It is probable that many readers of this article, myself included, are not currently experiencing severe housing need. However, we do not join the labour movement to ‘pull up the ladder’ and betray those most in housing need. This is a matter of social conscience not confined to our ideology. It also makes economic and political sense to act now.

We must bring on a second prefab revolution and get essential quality energy efficient Council Homes manufactured and assembled in every postcode across the UK.

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