(Kevin Hollinrake MP)
Thanks Catherine. And thanks for putting this on very important and really good panel to discuss these issues. I mean, the number one issue without doubt in the housing market and I declare my interest, my professional life in housing, as well as being a member of parliament. So, I've been in, I own a chain of estate agents called Hunters. I'm one of the owners. So, I've been in property for 30 odd years. But also, in Parliament, since 2015, before those years, I was on the select committee for housing communities love government. So, I get quite involved in this as a topic within Parliament but the number one issue without doubts in housing across Yorkshire and across the country actually is affordability. And there's no getting away from it. The housing market is actually working pretty effectively in the UK. There's lots of things we'd like to improve, but the biggest issue is affordability for those and low incomes and affordability for people trying to get on the housing ladder. And I think one of the and we will come to the solutions later, but I think what we're trying to do is we, we all understand the problem, but the solution, I don't think really fit the problem. So, there’s no getting away from it to solve that problem we have got to have a massive investment. Is social housing, truly affordable housing on a different scale than we've got today, and we have got to build more product. That's easier to access for young first-time buyers, particularly on lower incomes and the government's first home scheme discount market sale. Whatever you want to call it is a great is a great initiative. We need to roll out in much greater in much greater numbers. Lots of other areas as well confidence, clearly an issue because of COVID is you refer to planning, being a big issue and we're trying to reform that.
And the other problem I'd point to is the dominance of major house builders in this space. But principally, if you have one problem, you've got to choose its affordability.
(Colin Bennett)
What we've seen with often, which is, is essentially there to invest alongside SME house builders. It's actually really worked. It's been going for five years now and we've already invested 120 million across the regions in the UK to support SME house builders, to be able to essentially those that don't have access to capital, don't have access to support and insight to allow them to actually grow and deliver more homes. And I think for me, one of the big gaps within the marketplace at the moment is there's not enough of that public and private sector working together hand in hand to deliver for, for what is arguably a greater good, you know? And it points value to both Kevin and Andrew's points around, there has to be a longer term view taken about the societal impact of, of what housing delivers.
(Karen Brown)
Certainly around the green recovery. We see that there's a huge amount of potential there, and possibly something positive coming out of what's happened over the last few months. But we've estimated this is across the three northern regions. There’s 200,000 existing homes per year need retrofitting? That's to get to see by 2035. Now there's a huge industry to be created around that. I don't think we yet have the skills or jobs in place to do that, but it does need doing now that hasn't been mandated yet, but it that's just around the corner. I think in in terms of meeting that delivery so and those existing homes need retrofitting anyway and we've talked about affordable housing already and I absolutely agree that is the biggest challenge wherever you live, so even if you're living somewhere where housing is relatively affordable, if you're in a low wage economy that's out of your reach completely. But we have those existing homes, and they are affordable housing, but they're quite often they're not fit to live in, so we have a private rented sector. And the bottom end of that is not fit for habitation. It's appalling.
We don't have the capacity for enforcement in local authorities. COVID-19 will potentially create a huge amount of destabilization in the private rented sector. There's a queue for thousands of people, as the courts have reopened in terms of those people who haven't been able to pay their rent. And we're expecting possibly a lot of private landlords and not going to want the hassle of it, really. There's less and less profit in it for them, and it's becoming more and more of just a chore to keep those properties where you've got landlords with just one property or two properties. They're not making a huge amount from it. So, we're looking for investment for possibly social housing providers to get into large scale acquisition for those properties. They're simply not able to do it at the moment.
(Andrew Weaver)
We're getting into position where each time we get a bump in the market, obviously, the workforce becomes older. We've just seen in this last, I took a big one in 2008 2012. That was that was a real kind of terminal blow and then what you've got is obviously a cost increase that comes with that. Now cost increase, then feed their way into affordability so it's all linked, so you and I think you know we've all been in this along enough now to know that that the bumps in the road are more the norm than not. So, flux is where it's always at, changing our view of workforce and Skilling when I mean how many sons and daughters really want to be out today on the scaffold? When really, they want to be set down the desk with the mouse. Now because there's got to be a different approach now, I think it won't be that we suddenly show lots of pictures of housing and get kids in and we do it. Kids don't go into school and give them all hard hats. That's not the way it's got to be. It's got to be that maybe this apolitical housing ministry needs to be thinking big about a nationalized approach to housing. Housing program for modern methods.
My point about the Arctic Circle wasn’t, aren't we explorers in entrepreneurial? Wasn't that, for those that are mute or lost connection, it was more about that It's blooming difficult, and we're a grain of sand. It's more about if it's going to come from the SME's it's got to be that cost base of modern methods of construction are an additional cost, and what we've got we're facing at in Yorkshire at the moment is not land supply, not a willing workforce, not a good decent spread of house building activity. It's not that it's not that it's land viability, and the next three years, which is on the program behind me for four years or five, which takes into the middle of the decade and what's going to be more pressing by that time will be the green agenda will be mandated by local authorities because they have to. So, then we're seeing it. Now we're seeing a lot of bids by saying 25 to 30% will be over certain carbon neutrality or grades of, and everybody is going win bids and screwing around and try and find the solution. It'll be alright on the night. It's not the way to work. What we need to be doing is say we know at the moment any technology, any innovation is costly in anything, whether it's Tesla or whether it's Sigma or solar panels. We've got to find a way of making that technology more accessible for the SME so that it can be brought into the market, but that means looking at zoning of affordable homes an excellent it's technology is a different bidding system for local authorities.
(Karen Brown)
I think because green retrofits it is what we see is one of the biggest solutions to the challenges at the moment. I was very interested in this discussion around identifying the actual rules that we need for that, so heating engineers, you know, fabric of buildings and also the plain white paper is going to throw up a huge change in different roles in planning as well. Because planning is going to be digitized and around putting together those local plans and they are so important in getting those local plans right. I think one of the former housing ministers was going to have a planning A team to provide specialist support to councils. I don't know where that went, but I absolutely agree local plans have got to be right, so it's looking at what the policy requirements that are coming in. In the next few years, identifying the rules we need to fill them and trying to get that training and those rules in place.
(Kevin Hollinrake MP)
Really what I said already I think is and I understand the frustration from the participants in the market. Is, you know, I think all the pieces of the jigsaw kind of on the table, which is to put them together properly and in a sustainable long-term framework. That is not going to change, you know. And its business need certainty to invest in the more things are uncertain, the less they can invest. So cross party long-term framework that deals with affordability. So new zoning system for planning, social housing long term investment long term horizon that housing associations developers know that's going to be there and lots of commissioning to SME’s another opportunity. And discount market sales said before and shared ownership and a reconfiguring of the help to buy to make it more at target. Some people with low incomes but also in the general market and similar long-term framework for energy efficiency. So, green homes grand extend that absolutely agree with that, which is a long-term thing and then and the business is really investing skills. The investment training in the workforce. You don't need to worry too much about that as long as people know that scheme is going be here in five and 10-years’ time. Same as Green Deal and the Future Home Standard. As long as people can sit and that visibility. As long as people know where this is going. You know the same things are going to be there in 5 years’ time in 10 years’ time. That business will come in and deliver the solutions.
(Catherine Rutter)
You've all summarized brilliantly and that the points that I made a note of that definitely come out from all of you is that the focus is on the affordability. The focus is definitely that we want to build more social and we want to retrofit. From that point of view, but actually, and I wrote down that, but the system drives what happens today and it is almost that. What can we do to help and support you guys too? As Johnny put forward, make our case for change and almost to be able to hit through some of those barriers that you've seen. And it sounds like from what Colin said that there are some things that are happening. And the that are actually going that way, and we probably need to share more of that. So that again to Andrews point, once somebody's doing something in one and part of the County, then actually gives you permission to do it throughout, doesn't it? And we need to see how we can help and support from that point of view. I mean, we definitely hopefully what you've got out today is we definitely want to continue to work with you and particularly on a local level and in Yorkshire and Humber region. And I just want to say a big thank you for everything today.
