16 COMMENT
new homes will be required annually in the North and Midlands.
HELPWITH LEVELLING UP The Building Back Britain Commission – an independent group comprising of business leaders from Barratt Developments, Legal & General, Mace, NHBC, The Riverside Group and Thakeham – has published a report which highlights how the Government’s plans to level up the country will lead to a significant increase in demand for housing outside London and the south east, as well as reducing pressure on areas with a current high demand, such as the Home Counties. The Commission’s research assumes
that over the next two decades employ- ment levels will increase in areas the Government has identified as being most in need of levelling up, and which currently have rates below the national average. The jobs boost which will result from plans to boost regional growth, will lead to increased demand for housing (of different tenure types) for people who are already living in these areas, as well as those who will move to these towns and
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cities in search of new jobs. The Commission’s key findings include:
• Over the next 20 years around 86,000 to 140,000 homes will be needed every year in the areas defined as most in need of levelling up – a third of this will be ‘affordable housing’;
• This is around an additional 13,000 to 67,000 homes every year compared to the Government’s current estimates for those areas; •Birmingham would require the largest increase in new homes. Currently, 4,829 homes a year have been earmarked under the standard way the Government assesses need. This would rise to 12,430 homes a year under a scenario based on future growth; and
• Manchester requires the second largest increase in new homes. Using the present housing assessment, 3,527 homes are needed a year. This more than doubles to 7,469 homes a year based on future growth. The Building Back Britain Commission
used the report to set out a Housing Strategy which includes a radical rethink in the way that housing demand is
calculated to a model which shifts from being based on historical growth to a new ‘levelling up’ model of future need. Their report also argues for the creation of at least one ‘Construction Cluster’ in every region of the UK by 2030 to foster innovation and help train up workers in the latest methods of construction, with the first of these located in Leeds. They also want to see at least 75,000 high quality MMC homes built a year by 2030. Terrie Alafat, who chairs the Building
Back Britain Commission, said: “Our results have profound implications for policy. The Government’s current housing strategy simply does not fit the levelling up agenda. It is based on past growth trends and will not be dynamic enough to meet future demand. The increase in demand in levelling up areas should reduce the pressure for new homes in other areas that are already economically developed.” We should hear shortly from Michael
Gove on which direction he is likely to take. I suspect the Building Back Britain Commission may have more reason to celebrate than members of the LGA.
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