The Challenges of 2022 and a Hopeful Look Ahead to 2023

BY JESSIE HAYDEN, PROJECTS AND POLICY LEAD, HOUSING FESTIVAL

As we wrap up 2022, we’ve been looking back over the year and looking ahead to an exciting 2023. What has struck us most are the significant global and national changes that have impacted Bristol in 2022 including the cost of living crisis, the Temporary Accommodation crisis and the refugee crisis, all of which are adding to the complexity of existing housing challenges and the climate and ecological emergencies.

The debate can be a cut a thousand ways, but at the root of much complexity is a remaining simplicity - we urgently need more homes for those in most urgent need. Therefore, in these old and emerging crises the opportunity for collaboration and innovation remains even more critical, and as the year draws to a close, we want to celebrate the capacity of our city to work together to find solutions.

Increasing challenges

We are facing a significant structural deficit in our supply of social housing, and this demand has only increased with the cost of living crisis and pressure from immigration that has exacerbated existing crises. In Bristol, more than 1100 households are in Temporary Accommodation (TA), which is almost double pre-covid numbers, and while TA should be a short-term emergency solution, Shelter reports more than 35% of these are there for more than a year. This is creating a subsidy loss in Bristol City Council of more than £9 million per year.

Added to this, the Commons Home Affairs Committee was told that it costs the UK £5.6 million a day to house refugees in inappropriate accommodation. The economic crisis is vast, but the human crisis, whilst often hidden from the headline figures, is even more costly. When we consider them holistically, we can begin to find real solutions.

Housing is a human right

If housing is a human right, our housing market as constituted is not set up to provide it, because housing is driven by market forces. That is not to demonise the major housebuilders, who remain a critical part of the UK’s housing supply, but it is to honestly recognise the limitations of our current approach. However, we’re in a unique moment in time where the foundations are laid to fix the housing crisis through a new supply chain of housing delivery through modern methods of construction (MMC) which, working within the right context of value and viability, can be equipped to unlock more land (grey field and brownfield) within our city.

This emerging supply chain can be built on a different economic model and can therefore collaborate around a new methodology to redefine viability, commissioning homes that produce the most effective outcomes to benefit our societies and planet. The economic realities of the cost of housing asylum seekers and refugees coupled with the huge numbers in Temporary Accommodation and growing numbers on our social housing waiting list is an economic moment.  We need to convert those revenue costs into capital investment and fix our structural deficit.

Looking to 2023

Bristol has already taken significant steps to partnering with the MMC supply chain and a new methodology for delivering homes. In 2023, more pilot schemes that formed part of the Innovate UK funded project ‘Enabling Housing Innovation for Inclusive Growth’ will begin work, following their planning permission in 2022. These will not only provide affordable homes but continue the learning journey for Bristol – creating institutional knowledge and experience.

The winning team from the Climate Smart Cities Challenge will continue to work with Bristol City Council and others to design their demonstrator project, which will not only produce quality, climate smart homes on urban brownfield sites but continue to develop the wider viability conversation to release future homes which we hope will ultimately provide part of the solution to the TA crisis and the refugee crisis. We will also continue conversations around a Regional Centre of Excellence for MMC – an opportunity to support the critical skills agenda that is a key part of the ecosystem solution whilst enabling a a political narrative to aggregate more regional demand to incubate the emerging supply chain.

We are grateful for all that was achieved in 2022 and for each of our partners and supporters, and look forward to continuing the journey in 2023.