Instead of tinkering, let’s work together on bold, radical solutions to fix the housing crisis

We have been here before – a new government, a new blast of energy and ambition to change our broken housing system once and for all. Early noises and intimations have been positive and pretty well received, but for long-term, sustainable change we need to start again with some of the fundamentals of housing.

At a system level, so much about housing delivery today is wrong. Availability of land and funds is the most important thing, not the level and nature of an evolving housing need. Supply chains react to the demands of a market-based system, the skills we need today take years to develop, and capacity fails to fall in line – leading to a boom and bust contractor cycle.

Gaining consent for developments is often a hideous, partisan process where those with the loudest voices (usually the most affluent, whose housing needs are already nicely met, thank you) influencing decisions which affect the millions of people who need a home, or a better, safer, warmer, appropriately located one. Placemaking and community-focused facilities are more often than not an afterthought, bolted on with spurious payments which regularly fail to create an enduring community or sense of place.

Millions of families are priced out of a large part of the market, and many cannot choose to live and work where their roots, extended family support structure or work is.

I realise it’s easy to point at the failings – what should we, and the government, do differently? Here are four suggestions.

First, we need to understand housing is a system, and tinkering with policies here or incentives there, tends to create as many problems as it solves. Considering every aspect of this system – land, planning, funding, consenting, infrastructure, placemaking, construction, skills, supply chain and more – should be at the core of the new housing strategy.

This year, I was invited to join a new Housing Mission Delivery Board in Bath & North East Somerset, a system-orientated group led by housing association Curo, working on behalf of the forward-thinking local authority, who have come together to disrupt the system in the West of England. We have developed a generational vision, where all housing needs will be met and people have a choice where to live.

Second, land values are in my opinion often criminal. Inherited wealth, inherited farm land and institutional assets ensure prices are driven up to the highest level that viability can bear, rather than reflecting the social value which they could create, in the right hands. Can a responsible society not cap land price uplifts?

Next, community engagement needs to amplify the voices of those who would benefit from new and affordable housing, particularly the younger generation, who are not disposed to walking round a community centre staring at lifeless display boards, with a view to stop development at all costs. We need to use influencers, social media channels and fresh thinking to capture the imagination of those who the current system has left disenfranchised. The reputation and brand associated with our system needs a reboot.

And finally, we need to break the monopoly of huge volume housebuilders and developers, and allow smaller, local contractors – who have skin in the game – to compete for a fair share of the work, ensuring that medium- and large-sized developments don’t end up in the hands solely of the ‘nationals’, and, as in some European countries, multiple housebuilders must be part of a large development.

I have spoken in the past about the ‘Barrattification’ of Britain, and proven that bravery, disruption and a focus on social value can lead to beautiful and compelling communities such as HemingwayDesigns’ Staiths South Bank in Gateshead, and others across our country in recent years. The work we are planning in Bath & North East Somerset will bring in more of this type of collaborative thinking, but these pockets of liveability for all need to become the norm, and we need a strategy that will bring about a new housing ecosystem to create the future places and homes our communities deserve.