STARTING SMALL FOR SYSTEM ACTIVATION
Social Rent Housing playbook series
New to the playbook series? Start here with A playbook approach to accelerating housing delivery.
Illustrative Growth Model
Jumping from our current delivery of around 8,400 homes to the delivery of 90,000 homes a year is such a step change, that the enormity of the task ahead may put us off starting altogether. We therefore recommend committing to start small for system activation and spark change by collectively delivering 100,000 social rent homes within the next ten years, through the ecosystem solution.
If we can commit to embark on a national delivery programme of this kind, we would not only deliver more than 10% of the 90,000 target, but also create momentum for new ways to deliver social rent housing and eliminate the structural deficit.
An indicative assessment of how numbers could grow by enacting this plan suggests that by the tenth year, this programme alone could be delivering almost a quarter of the overall 90,000 social homes required a year. The assessment also suggests that at a local authority level these annual targets are both doable and can be surpassed.
The Playbook intentionally focuses on the delivery of additional social rent homes. It is however recognised that mixed and balanced communities are lifeblood of thriving neighbourhoods, so the total number of new homes delivered should exceed the numbers of social rent homes described.
Translating targets into reality
It is important to show that proposed plan is achievable, both by allowing the delivery capacity of the system to grow over a period of time and by splitting the total number of homes down by region.
For example, in England and Wales, we have 55 cities. As an illustration, over 10 years if each city were to develop 20 small sites (of an average of just 7 homes), it would equate to 77,000 new homes. This does not include towns, or larger brownfield sites (mixed-tenure developments),
or other One Public Estate land, so the total number could reasonably be anticipated to be much higher. Moreover, there are 317 Local Planning Authorities in England, enabling the task to build 100,000 homes to be broken down further.
Figure 1 below, is an illustrative (exponential) growth model, assuming each LPA builds their percentage share of the total 100,000 homes based on the indicative housing need figures, accompanying the House of Commons Library briefing paper: Calculating housing need in the planning system (England).
Illustrative (exponential) Growth Model
Isolating what this would mean for Bristol as an illustrative example (see Table 1 below), begins to show that this is achievable. Over ten years Bristol would build 1,091 homes, contributing 1.1% of the national total.
Bristol LPA’s targets for example
Exactly how the task is broken down, is less important than doing so, to foster collective confidence and release action.
Read more about activation of the supply chain and how targets will be translated into reality.
Download the Playbook here, or explore other blogs.
As you engage with the Playbook, we encourage you to reach out to the contributing organisations to inform your learning. No single organisation’s product, process or passion can fix the problem. Change will come through creativity, collective wisdom and the will to roll up our sleeves, get involved and work together to do things differently!