12 COMMENT COMMENT
WHAT CAN GOVE DELIVER?
Patrick Mooney
Patrick Mooney, housing consultant and news editor of Housing, Management & Maintenance magazine asks what can Michael Gove hope to deliver on new housebuilding?
T
I SUSPECT WE ARE IN FOR AN
INTERESTING TIME WHICH WILL KEEP THOSE INVOLVED IN HOUSING ON THEIR TOES
WWW.HBDONLINE.CO.UK
rying to keep up to date with Government policies for new housebuilding can be a thankless task with many twists and turns, along with inevitable feelings of uncertainty that you have either missed a vital announcement, or an unforseen change is just around the corner. With Michael Gove’s return as the Levelling Up and Housing Secretary after a four-month gap, that uncertain feeling has returned. For instance has he come back just to deal with unfi nished business from his very productive fi rst stint in the ob, or has he got a completely new set of priorities agreed with Rishi Sunak? The rumours emanating from his civil servants is that Mr Gove is keen to start work again on the original list of policies and projects that won him a surprising number of plaudits from across the social housing sector. In his fi rst period in offi ce, which only lasted 10 months, he let it be known that the housebuilding sector should not be overly focussed on delivering against an arbitrary target – like the 300,000 new homes a year fi gure, despite it being taken directly from the Conservatives’ manifesto for the 2019 general election. Instead he wanted the focus to be on the quality of new homes, rather than just the numbers getting built. More recently he has signposted a cautious commitment
to delivering 300,000 homes annually, but highlighted diffi culties with meeting the target, namely shortages of materials, labour, land and people’s unwillingness to have new developments on their doorstep. Of course in his (albeit short) absence, the housing market has changed an awful lot and a diffi cult problem to solve has got a whole lot worse. Housing affordability has materially worsened for many people due to rising mortgage rates – the average rate for a two-year fi xed rate mortgage shot up from around 4.25 per cent to around 6.5 per cent in the wake of Kwarteng’s short-lived mini budget – and already historically high private rents have jumped by around 20 per cent in many parts of the country, with homelessness also on the rise.
In his absence the latest big idea for delivering new housing and economic growth through investment zones was launched by the Truss administration. These would have unprecedented powers to slice through established planning policies and constraints, with generous tax breaks for investors willing to take a punt. However, it is not clear if any of Messrs Gove, Hunt or Sunak are particular fans of these and only time will tell if they are allowed to thrive, or will wither and die like many wizard ideas beforehand.
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