A panel of experts including Warrington based Your Housing Group, Homes England, Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership, and Liverpool City Council have encouraged regional partners to continue to work together to solve the housing crisis and tackle social inequalities
The event, entitled ‘Getting our house in order’,hosted by BBC broadcast journalist Rachel Burden, brought together representatives from local councils, housing associations, developers, public services, and investors. The panel and wider audience tackled the issues of how the wider industry can address social inequalities and ensure more people have a safe place to call home.
Jacque Allen, CEO, Your Housing Group set the tone for the event early, “We must continue to advocate for a comprehensive, multi-agency, long-term strategy and increased funding for affordable homes. Our sector’s resilience and dedication to our social mission have never been more crucial.”
“It’s not acceptable to have 1.3 million people waiting to find a permanent, safe place to call home, but it’s also not just about buying land and building homes anywhere. As a housing provider, we need to ensure we invest in our existing homes for our existing residents, and when buying land, we do so in the right place. All homes should have access to GPs, schools, accessible employment, community services, and efficient and reliable transport, and this is where collaboration is key.”
Leading the conversation from a local authority perspective, Nicola Butterworth, Corporate Director of Neighbourhoods and Housing, Liverpool City Council said;
“In Liverpool alone, we have seen a 12,000 percent increase in people living in temporary accommodation over the last six or seven years, but we feel that solutions are embedded in working with our partners.”
“Since launching our neighbourhood model, we have seen, as well as safe homes, an increase in community opportunities such as art, sport, culture, and pride of place. Which are invaluable in alleviating social isolation, improving wellbeing, and reducing health inequalities.”
Sir Richard Leese, Co-Chair Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership highlighted the role that other agencies, like those in the health sector, must play in collaborating with regional partners;
“We have preventable poor health, but sadly, less than 20% of poor health can be managed by the NHS alone. We have to start breaking down silo working, and see local authorities, health, emergency, social services, and housing coming together. There isn’t one lever you can pull, as they are all integral to each other.”
While many of the conversations in the room were about issues outside of building new houses, Kate Collins, Head of Affordable Housing Delivery, Homes England, highlighted the need for more affordable homes, saying, “There is a growing demand for affordable housing with demand continuing to outstrip supply. The challenge of providing truly affordable homes persists with rising house prices, increasing rents, interest rates and inflation, coupled with land constraints, rising construction costs and reduced capacity in the development sector.”
“In the Autumn budget the Government announced that details of the new affordable homes programme will be set out in the Sending Review in Spring, with a commitment to build 1.5 million homes, but Homes England can’t do this alone, and we have to work in together.”
The event saw questions from the audience on how can we encourage more developers to prioritise affordable housing on sites, how can we foster a better sense of community and a feeling of place, and what can be done to secure more long term investment.
Jacque Allen concluded the event by saying,
“We really need to create security for everyone, whether that’s for residents with access to safe warm, houses or for organisations like our own by securing long term affordable funding that allows us to provide more people with a safe place to call home.
It’s the people that matters the most and that’s what we have to keep front and centre when we plan, collaborate and consider the best possible steps and solutions to this ongoing housing crisis. Housing is a people crisis.”
