UK: Direct Commissioning Of New Homes – The Penultimate Piece In The New Homes Jigsaw

The Chancellor's announcement of the Government's "direct commissioning" of new homes is the penultimate piece in the jigsaw of its plan to deliver the required 230,000 homes per annum.

The first piece in the jigsaw, the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) provided the presumption in favour of housing development, and the requirement for each Local Authority to provide at least a continuous five year supply of deliverable housing land based on an objective assessment of housing need.

The second was fiscal incentives to Local Authorities through the implementation of the New Homes Bonuses to help pay for local infrastructure, and a raft of loans and grants to house builders through the Getting Britain Building and Home Start programmes.

Now, the Direct Commissioning of new homes, targeting public sector owned land, will address the spread of delivery and delay caused by a combination of the planning process and viability issues on many privately owned sites.

A key advantage will be the ability of the Government, and its delivery agency the Homes and Communities Agency, to take a longer term view on the returns from major developments, including land value. This should speed up the delivery in areas with high demand. The constraints to affordable homes should also be removed. Through the adoption of pre-fabricated housing solutions, which can provide fast, sustainable and cost effective house building, there is an opportunity for this programme to boost the UK's manufacturing sector as well.

The final piece of the jigsaw will be the building of new garden communities such as those proposed at Ebbsfleet and Northstowe, along with Bicester which will form the latest garden city as announced as part of the National Infrastructure Plan.

Bicester Garden Community will be well placed to absorb some of the demand from the technology and advanced manufacturing driven growth economies of Oxford and the M40 corridor, and will be a driver of economic growth in its own right as the new homes will attract new businesses, in the classic model of Welwyn or Letchworth.

The implementation of all of the above will complete the jigsaw and go some way to help deliver the 230,000 new homes which are required each year.

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