There has been a wave of reaction from across the property industry after the long-anticipated Housing White Paper was unveiled in Parliament on Tuesday 7 February by communities secretary Sajid Javid. Here are more comments from property professionals across the market about the proposals in the document.
Mark Dickinson, managing director of developer Anthology: “As a small, agile housebuilder we are pleased that we have been awarded the recognition of the role that companies like ours can play in providing a solution to this very real issue. The fact that 60% of homes across the UK are built by just ten housebuilders reflects a market which is out of balance. The decline of smaller developers, whose production has reduced by 80% in the last 25 years, has been damaging to the industry and to customer choice; change is essential and this change needs to happen right across the sector to ensure a fair outcome for all households.
“Being a developer solely focused on brownfield regeneration in London, it's always encouraging hearing about any relaxation or streaming of planning processes, and we welcome measures around increased densities. Anything that remove's doubt about planning outcomes must help to encourage future investment and the construction of much needed new homes. However, keeping the local community front of mind is key to long-term success, we need to ensure that a gung-ho approach is avoided and communities are engaged throughout the process.”
Brendan Sarsfield, CEO of housing association Family Mosaic: “I welcome this new direction. Those of us taking risks to build new homes need flexibility and help to increase the volumes we build. This paper gives me hope that the government is ready to play its part. We are equally up to the challenge.”
Adam Phelps, head of land and new homes at Humberts: “The intentions within the White Paper stem from a good place but the threat is that they’ve been tinged with positive political spin. The role of the SME housebuilder is vital to the delivery of the government’s housing target and supporting and encouraging this sector will be the make or break factor with delivery. Cutting planning red tape for example is an excellent idea as is freeing public land for housebuilding. We need to see actions rather than words to ensure the government hit their housing targets.”
Graham Davidson, managing director of Sequre Property Investment: “After years of focusing on the unrealistic goal of ‘homeownership for all’, the government is finally realising the vital role that the private rental sector has to play in delivering a balanced housing market. While the focus is on institutional grade investment, we must not lose sight of the role that individual landlords play. Build to Rent has been much talked about but as of yet we have yet to see many tangible results – meaning that it is down to private landlords to deliver the goods. Any effort to kick-start building and development can only be positive but as with any new initiatives, we must not get too excited as the impact could take many years to be felt.”
Richard Donnell, insight director at industry analyst Hometrack: "This White Paper builds on five years of housing policies from the Conservative government that started with the National Planning Policy Framework in 2012. During this time the core message to all stakeholders in both the private and public sectors has been centred around the government's desire to see a step change in new housing delivery.
"These latest announcements represent further policy refinements to this central message and highlight that more still needs to be done to ensure all parties are working together effectively to boost investment in new housing and get all stakeholders focused on upping supply.
"The announcements for the rented sector will be welcomed by tenants and are a necessary response to a rapidly growing and important part of the housing market, which over the past two decades has seen billions of new investment but far fewer progressive, policy initiatives."
James Davis, CEO and founder of online lettings agency Upad: “Nothing in this White Paper will solve the ownership crisis that the UK faces. The government’s continued clamp down on landlords is only going to emphasise the issue that there is too much demand to meet supply, as people live longer in rented accommodation. Buy-to-let landlords should be enticed through tax incentives, rather than hiking stamp duty, to bring the rental market back into equilibrium.
“The government is misguided about wanting to ensure three-year tenancies are available, as from our experience, tenants don’t actually want longer tenancy agreements. Most tenants are made up of students, those coming into the UK or who move frequently and inbetweeners who are crying out for flexibility of tenure. Why is this such a bad thing? People like renting, as they do with cars and music. We need to get over the mentality that ‘your home is your castle’. The government needs to wake up and realise what consumers want today, rather than what they think they want, sitting in their ivory towers.”
Duncan Walker, managing director of WhatHouse? Award-winning Renaissance Villages: “The government needs to deliver on its promises by ensuring that the planning process moves faster. This will attract a wider range of financial backing for development schemes and speed up delivery. Slow planning processes and lengthy build programmes are not attractive to backers such as private equity. For the retirement sector to really gain traction we need to support funding by a completely different capital structure.
“This was also an opportunity for the communities secretary to introduce an incentive for people buying a family home from a downsizing owner. This would galvanise the progress of property chains, which are often upwards of five sales long and help to free up larger family homes and assist the housing ladder from first-time buyers upwards.”
“There is a huge demand for good-quality retirement property in the UK and a lack of suitable stock. As a result, reservations for our properties are very strong but exchanges are a challenge. Exchanges take an average of four months to complete and delays in the selling process are preventing retirees from making the move from a four- or five-bedroom family house to a more appropriately sized cottage or apartment.”
Neil Hadden, chief executive of Genesis Housing: “It’s positive to see a shift towards promoting other tenure options beyond the traditional model of homeownership, and ensuring consistently good standards for everyone. Genesis, along with other housing associations, has long ascribed to a ‘smarter’ and more open model of renting, which cuts out agency fees and hidden charges and offers residents the chance to properly put down roots with flexible and secure tenancies up to five years. Add in the option of decorating properties to your taste and a 24-hour emergency repairs service and it becomes clear that the sector is well ahead in challenging the perception of renting as a short-term option chequered with constraints and unpredictability.”
CEO of online estate agency eMoov, Russell Quirk: “The reduction in time between planning permission and the start of building is such a small aspect of the problem that it will barely make a dent to the overall outcome.
“The move to encourage developers away from low-density areas, whilst helping to fund smaller firms to challenge the big players in the space may incite more competition and more extensive housing projects, but we need these developers to be encouraged to actually build in the first place. Something they currently aren’t doing due to a lack of incentives.
“In fact, all we have really seen from developers of late is the disgraceful backhanded tactics of selling off leases behind the backs of homeowners. This is a practice fuelled by greed to maximise the profit made by these developers at the expense of the homeowner, under the guise of addressing the housing crisis whilst they’re in fact fuelling it. Rather than potentially increase the number of them building, these developers need to be first brought to account for their actions. Again, the promise of stamping this out is a commendable one, but one that is unlikely to come to fruition.”
See Russell Quirk's video reaction here.
Malcolm Booth of Later Life Ambitions: “Too many houses are not suitable for the needs of the UK’s ageing population. This inflates the price of the few suitable properties but also increases the cost to the taxpayer of health, social care and housing adaptations for older people trapped in unsuitable homes.
“This is why we welcome the government’s proposal to strengthen national policy so that local planning authorities are expected to have clear policies for addressing the housing requirements of groups with particular needs, including older and disabled people.”
Johnny Caddick, joint managing director of Build to Rent developer Moda Living: "These measure will mean there’s far more scope for brownfield regeneration across our cities, catering to the very needs of urban dwellers. This is not about switching everyone from ownership – it’s about providing choice and real customer service for people across the UK who want to live centrally.”
Read more industry reaction here.
Read further industry reaction here.
Read another collection of reactions here.
Read the government White Paper in full here.