On the 10th November of this year Homes England announced the details regarding the long awaited 10 year investment strategy that will see £39billion invested into Social and Affordable Homes.
The investment and length of programme is both important and transformational. For too long investment in the social housing sector has felt very much like a second thought for successive governments. The intention to build over 300,000 affordable homes, with in excess of 180,000 of those with a social rent tenure will enable developers, registered providers of housing and land owners to work collectively together to deliver over the long term.
The investment programme along with other funding streams will unlock a large proportion of new build and with the widening brief much needed regeneration of unsuitable stock. This is great news. However it has a lot to achieve from a standing start.
Whilst we’re looking favourably at the programme, sadly it is our opinion that the programme may have a number of challenges that have plagued the country and housebuilding specifically in the past. There is a clear skills shortage of experienced trades and an increase in house building will only bring this further into focus. Along with investment in house building, colleges and further education facilities should be promoted to develop skilled programmes showcasing how working in the building trade is a both mentally and financially rewarding career. Unfortunately these courses take time to create the skilled workforce of the future which will could cause drag in the programme.
The lack of capacity in the workforce will also create significant pressures on costs as developers race to secure the best of the supply chain. Not only will this have an upward pressure it could also give rise to a proportionate reduction in product quality as it becomes a numbers game for completion statistics.
Further landowners and developers will be looking for increased values and margins knowing that so much money is available and with a relatively limited land bank, costs will inevitably increase proportionately.
It will be interesting to see how the programme develops and how schemes come to market.
