Sarah Danman shares our key takeaways from our recent London Housing Summit
Last week, we hosted our first ever London Housing Summit.
With 150 guests, our brilliant housing sector partners and inspiring speakers, we came together for a common purpose: to break the gridlock affecting London’s housing market and make practical progress on solving the capital’s housing crisis.
Throughout the Summit speakers and delegates emphasised the need to position housing as the vital infrastructure that it is. But what does this mean in practice? In this blog, we’ll explore the key solutions identified at the Summit, and how our next government could help unlock London’s housing market.
As our CEO Antonia said in her welcoming statement, London’s housing is the foundation to prosperity – it underpins public health, poverty, inequality and sustainability. Yet, we are in the midst of a housing crisis, with multiplying effects for London’s other challenges. The numbers speak for themselves: one in four Londoners are in poverty after paying for their housing costs, rough sleeping is at its highest rate in a decade, and one child in every classroom in the city is living in temporary accommodation. We cannot wait for the this to worsen.
What can we learn from the initiatives that are working now?
Our first panel – titled ‘What’s Working Now?’ – considered examples of best practice to learn from and replicate. Our panellists were Pooja Agrawal, CEO of Public Practice, Councillor Kieron Williams, Councillor Louise Brett and Anurag Verma, Chair of the Russ, the discussion chaired by the University of East London’s Dr. Anna Minton.
Creating high quality, sustainable homes was a key theme. Cllr Williams shared Southwark’s decision to write their own design standards, harmonising utility with attractive exteriors within new developments.
Anurag Verma highlighted the value of smaller scale projects. Giving the perspective of a community land trust, he shared how the RUSS had consciously aimed to build a community, providing mixed tenures and working to create a low-rent culture. Land given to smaller projects creates space for experimentation, innovation and creativity within housing, where successful approaches can be scaled for larger scale sites.
Despite this good practice, there are barriers to progress. Pooja Agrawal referenced the dearth of both planners and construction workers, calling on government to fund new training courses. Meanwhile, both Southwark and Ealing Council Leaders harkened back to when local councils had in-house construction teams – speeding up the housebuilding process and creating trust between the construction sector and local government.
Co-creating solutions
Our guests then explored a thematic workshop session, to share case studies, discuss barriers to progress and find new ways of working. The breakout sessions included: Unlocking Institutional Investment; Public Health & Housing, Housing Reimagined, and An Anti-Racist Approach to Tackling Racial Inequalities in Our Housing System.
Keep an eye out for upcoming blogs unpacking the discussions and action points that emerged.
The right to housing
Marianna Mazzucato’s colleague Isadora Spillman-Schappell introduced us to the concept of a mission-orientated and human rights approach to housing. Marianna outlined the idea of housing as a fundamental human right, and how this approach can support governments to create public value-driven housing.
“Is the green belt that green? The public think of the green belt as rolling fields, but that’s not the case.”
Lord Shaun Bailey delivered a keynote speech, emphasising the need to build on ‘less green’ areas of the green belt, he called on the next national government to maintain our current housing stock, plan an end to “short-term tinkering” and the start of long-term planning – building a variety of homes to meet the diverse needs of all Londoners.
He spoke strongly of the foundational nature of housing. From public health, the adult social care and crime, Lord Bailey shared anecdotes about how housing is at the heart of many of the crises facing Londoners.
The green belt is an “arbitrary restrictor of the capital’s growth”
Our Senior Researcher Jon Tabbush echoed these calls for a structured plan to build on the green belt. Jon argued that the green belt “comes from an era when we had different policies to deal with housing demand”. Instead, he suggested looking to Copenhagen’s ‘green fingers’ model, where the city has a green belt, but with “sustainable, rail-led ‘incursions’ outside the belt.”
Jon’s presentation was also a deep dive into the data from both our recent research report, Solving London’s Housing Crisis, and polling data produced for Centre for London by Savanta. He unpacked the issues, potential solutions and public opinion surrounding London’s housing market. Take a look at Jon’s presentation here.
“We are unashamed YIMBYS, we say Yes In Our Back Yard to building new homes in London.”
Next, Deputy Mayor of London for Housing Tom Copley took to the stage for a keynote speech. He outlined his stance of progressive YIMBYism , which he defined as getting the public sector more involved in building, through grant funding, land loans and partnerships. He advocated for the use of land assembly zones and development corporations (get in touch to be involved in an upcoming Centre for London project in this space), and creating a shared understanding of growth, which works for all Londoners.
What happens next?
The Summit’s final panel discussion discussed how we can break through the gridlock of London’s housing crisis. Chaired by our CEO Antonia, the panel brought together Lord Shaun Bailey, Deputy Mayor Tom Copley, Olivia Harris, CEO of Dolphin Living, Centre for London Chair of Trustees and Chief Executive of L&Q, Fiona Fletcher-Smith and Rob Perrins, CEO of the Berkeley Group.
The group stressed the need to work together to overcome the blockers in the planning system. Rob Perrins spoke of a worrying trend of investors leaving the capital, a result of uncertainty and complexity within the city’s planning system. All panellists echoed the need for a long-term and reliable planning process, supported by properly funding our local planning departments.
While planning is a big beast, they also outlined immediate, smaller scale policy changes that can make a real difference – Fiona Fletcher Smith suggested carbon grants for social housing and updating the cladding policy.
Speaking to the homelessness crisis, Olivia Harris underlined bad landlords as a key cause. To tackle extortionate rent hikes and inadequate housing, the panellists pointed to the need for landlord licencing and further regulation of the private rental sector, alongside the abolition of Section 21 evictions.
Finally, all panellists stressed that the next national government should change its perspective on social homes: social housing is not part of the national debt, but an essential link in the chain of national infrastructure.
Our next steps
We’re excited to continue working together with our sector partners to push forward the tangible policy solutions discussed at the Housing Summit. Behind the scenes, we’re creating a joined-up approach to ask the next national government for what the capital’s housing sector really needs. Want to find out more? Sign up to our newsletter to keep posted on our latest actions.