The hokey cokey of politics

In, out, in, out and then shake it all about. To be honest I’m becoming a little sick of the EU referendum hokey-cokey. In true political style both sides have made a mockery of providing the voting public good honest information and instead have resorted to scare tactics and over ambitious promises. Imagine what society would be like if politicians just told the truth – that would be front page news (well apart from the Sun which would no doubt be showing us a photo of the latest hairstyle from a member of the latest boyband sensation!).

Earlier in the month politics delivered us a new Labour Mayor of London and a Scottish and Welsh government run by the SNP and Labour respectively. Irrespective of whether you think the best, worst or middle runner won at least they all have on the agenda “plans” to sort out housing. I say “plans” because until they happen I don’t particularly believe a politician.

Khan and the returned governments of Scotland and Wales have all put affordable housing at the top of their priority lists, alongside policies to boost infrastructure spending and address skills shortages in construction. Music to my ears but what are these plans and do they really stack up? The biggest challenge as I see it will be developers adapting in London to Khan, who has a very different style than Boris. Set a target that 50% of all new housing should be “genuinely affordable” to low-income earners

Khan

• “Set up a construction academy to help address the capital’s skills shortages” – yes like this idea but will need to see the detail – how and who will fund this and why is it only applying to the capital’s skills shortages – can there not be linkage to a more broader national need?
• “50% affordable housing target” – yes in an ideal world this would be magical but it needs to be sensible. I’m a small housebuilder, am I really going to develop a site knowing half is affordable? Sense would make a size limit criteria – 50% for developments over say 200 homes and ratchet down. We want to encourage affordable not terminate development.
• “Maintain the London Plan’s commitment to zero-carbon housing” – never really believed this could be done properly until I saw some houses in the North that are zero-carbon. It is possible and if London can even convert a few percentage it will make a huge difference.

Scotland

·        A promise to deliver 50,000 affordable houses with 70% being for social rent is a welcome promise and certainly aid the housing supply issues in Scotland. This coupled with further investment in Help to Buy will make the housing ladder easier for first time buyers.

Wales

·        An interesting development here with similar promises as above – 20,000 affordable homes but key being an end to landbanking for housebuilders. Look forward to seeing this in action.

The policies proposed by all are welcome and certainly benefit the respective locations. Hopefully in a few months we can all glow in the bliss that some have actually come to fruition. Feel free to contact me 0113 288 2276 or lee.a.wilkinson@uk.pwc.com if you wish to discuss this blog or anything relevant to property and construction.

Enjoy the week ahead

Lee