On the same morning that the Mayor of London launched his London Growth Plan, the Deputy Mayor for Housing and Residential Development, Tom Copley, was in the City of London Guildhall giving the opening speech to the NLA Housing Summit 2025. The messaging from both was clear: an ambition to ‘turbocharge’ the London Economy, with unlocking significant housing delivery as a critical part to achieving this. 

Armed with the new NPPF, the draft Planning and Infrastructure Bill and the drafting of a New London Plan, Tom Copley concluded the scene is now set for 2025 to be the turning point for housing delivery. This formed the backdrop for the discussions throughout the Summit sessions: what are the obstacles to housing delivery and what needs to happen to unlock the numbers needed?

Believe it or not, a common theme was that ‘Planning is not THE problem’. It may have its niggles and resourcing struggles, but the fact that more than a million homes permitted in the last decade have not been built out and the number of planning applications for housing lodged are at record lows suggests there are other issues at play before and after the planning process.

Fingers were pointed at the challenges posed by the Building Safety Act and how the Gateway process has created a painful pinch point that is adding significant uncertainty and a minimum of 6-12 months to construction programmes before a spade can even go in the ground. For Registered Providers, it has also meant directing attention and finances away from housing development and acquisition and towards updating current assets. Opportunities to improve the process must be explored, such as allowing more open communication and collaboration during the Gateway process.

Another clear message for the sector was to ensure it looked beyond mere delivery of housing, but also to the actual occupation and management of these homes. For the speakers from local authorities and Registered Providers, the plea was that service charge must be designed into schemes from very early stages. This is essential in addressing the increasing number of affordable homes that are being provided with an unaffordable service charge attached.

Direct delivery from Registered Providers, local authorities and through public / private partnerships was seen as key to addressing the housing crisis and to best ensure homes are designed with the end users and managing bodies in mind. There was certainly an eagerness in the room for public sector housing delivery to be boosted, and an acknowledgement that the private sector cannot address the entire housing burden – particularly when it comes to affordable housing. 

But above all else, the clear and consistent buzz work that was used throughout the course of the Summit was ‘funding’. Without an urgent greater injection of money directed in the right places, it will not be possible to unlock the housing numbers needed to address the significant shortage we face. One speaker made the stark reminder that the last time housing delivery hit the same levels that we are targeting now was in the 1970s, when public spending in housing and infrastructure was at 6% of GDP; now it is at 3%. 

Despite the challenges highlighted at the Summit, there was an optimism in the air not as present in recent years and certainly the sense of a collective will to make 2025 truly the turning point for our much-needed housing delivery.