Housing must be at the heart of the nation’s strategically important infrastructure plans
There will be multiple battle lines drawn by political parties as we move towards next May’s General Election. Housing will almost certainly be one of them.
We rightly hear our elected leaders talking about and urging action over the on-going cost of living crisis caused by the impact of high utility bills on those least able to pay.
But we should equally not forget that the availability of housing, the cost of rent and mortgages and the simple inability of large parts of society to enter the housing market, is now a matter of growing concern to an increasing number of voters across the UK.
"Given the increasingly integrated nature of modern sustainable urban living with local transport, communications, energy and water networks, it will be almost inconceivable to consider housing as anything but a vital component of strategically significant national infrastructure."
“The country is in the midst of the biggest housing crisis in a generation,” says Sir Michael Lyons who is leading the Labour Party’s review of housing policy and drawing up a road map for the changes required to deliver the new homes and communities needed.
“This housing shortage plays a central part in the cost of living crisis, leaving millions of working people unable to afford the homes they want,” he adds. “Back in 1997 it took an average family just three years to save for a proper deposit on a home but today it takes 22 years.”
At the heart of this problem, of course, is the continuing failure by consecutive governments to build - or enable others to build – sufficient new housing to meet demand. The annual shortfall remains as staggering as it is unacceptable.
It is therefore appropriate that Sir John Armitt should this week raise the housing issue while launching his draft legislation for a National Infrastructure Commission. Specifically he questioned whether large scale housing schemes should in fact be considered as nationally important infrastructure.
Armitt has opted to wait for the outcome of the Lyons review before making a commitment either way. Sensible of course.
But I would say that, given the increasingly integrated nature of modern sustainable urban living with local transport, communications, energy and water networks, it will be almost inconceivable to consider housing as anything but a vital component of strategically significant national infrastructure.
Not least when you consider the way that cities across the UK and the globe are moving towards a higher density, lower carbon, urban model of living. As we see from the submissions drawn up by Local Enterprise Partnerships across England and judged this week by government with £6bn of devolved funding, it really is no longer possible to think of housing in isolation from other critical infrastructure.
To be successful and sustainable, all elements of our built, social and commercial infrastructure must be integrated and coherently planned for the long term.
As such, plans for a National Infrastructure Commission to underpin this planning process are hugely sensible.
But failure to include housing in this legislation could well undermine our chances of not only solving our housing crisis but also of our ability to really plan the critical integrated low carbon infrastructure that will sustain our future.