The political summer ends with party conference season and, as the parties congregate in northern cities and seaside towns, we are seeing a fresh focus on housing issues. I want therefore to recap on our summer of activity and to look ahead to what we are doing over the coming weeks.
External affairs
Political contact
In September I joined Yvette Cooper MP, along with John Callcutt of English Partnerships and Paul King of WWF, on a fact-finding visit to the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. We looked at a number of modern housing developments delivering high levels of environmental performance, particularly on energy efficiency. This was a genuinely useful opportunity to study contemporary housing solutions in this field and to provide an industry perspective on them direct to the Minister. The invitation to accompany the Minister was also a welcome indication of the progress we have made in our relationship with Government.
HBF board members agreed that we should focus more on sustainability issues, in accordance with the increased political airtime given to the issue. Part of this will hopefully involve organising an industry visit to see one of the developments that I went to with the Minister.
Conservative party contact continues, with HBF providing Michael Gove with our views on some of the unintended consequences of Government policy and regulation at his request. We were delighted that he spoke at the HBF Planning Conference on 14 September. In addition, I have recently met John Gummer, who is leading the Conservatives’ Quality of Life Policy Review Group - which has a major focus on housing and planning issues.
I would also like to draw your attention to the HMI conference on the 10th October at the housebuilding 2006 where Yvette Cooper will be speaking. If you have not booked a place and would like to attend please contact the Events Team on 0207 960 1646.
Thames Basin Heaths SPA & Dorset Heathlands SPA
The HBF Board has agreed that we should arrange for specialist representation in the seven days of technical sessions of the forthcoming Examination in Public of the South East England RSS that are to consider the evidence base for English Nature’s proposed delivery plan on mitigation standards.
Meanwhile English Nature is now taking active steps to seek the adoption of similar mitigation requirements within a 5 kilometre zone of the Dorset Heathlands SPA. We are taking urgent action to discuss the position on this with the DCLG and other key bodies.
Skills issues
CITB-ConstructionSkills’ formal consultation of HBF has encouragingly proposed leaving the levy rate unchanged at 0.5% for PAYE and 1.5% for Labour Only Sub Contractors. Following discussion in the Careers, Skills and Training Committee we will be writing to confirm our agreement to this proposal.
The second site audit of CSCS card-holding on Major Home Builder Group sites will be undertaken on 4 October, to assess progress to a full-carded workforce.
Economic affairs
DCLG Housing Supply Review Group
Yvette Cooper will be holding two workshops for representatives from 20 key southern local planning authorities, homebuilders and other important stakeholders on 18 and 26 October to discuss removing barriers to housing delivery and examples of innovative working or good practice. HBF has supplied the DCLG with a strong list of industry representatives to invite and has worked with officials on the agenda.
Members of the Majors and Metropole are beginning to submit information for HBF’s Planning Timeline study. We will be analysing the data in October.
Planning-gain Supplement (PGS)
HBF’s PGS working group, chaired by Berkeley chairman Roger Lewis, continues to examine whether a workable PGS can be devised, on the assumption the Treasury will introduce some form of infrastructure levy. We recently held a very useful meeting with the RICS to discuss valuation issues arising from the PGS, we have met officials at the DCLG, and a meeting is planned with HM Treasury. The Treasury and DCLG will publish further consultation documents with the Pre-Budget Report in November or December.
A PGS study by Knight Frank, jointly sponsored by the HBF, RICS, BPF and CBI, was launched on 19 September, for which HBF members supplied information. Based on 18 case studies, of which 9 were residential, serious concerns emerged. Chief among these was the likelihood that less money would be raised on large schemes than from existing S106 agreements, although smaller schemes may end up paying more.
Given the unrepresentative sample, it is not possible to work out the likely overall revenue outcome compared with current S106 agreements, but local authority revenues could be significantly affected. Liability disputes with HMRC seem likely to cause delays, raising serious questions over the scheme.
Affordable housing
The HBF Affordable Housing Policy Group (AHPG), chaired by Redrow Executive Deputy Chairman Paul Pedley, has had the first of its four planned meetings. The objective is to produce a report by Christmas which puts the issue in its wider policy context and seeks a policy solution which meets both Government and industry objectives.
Customer satisfaction (Barker Recommendation 32)
Agreement to widen the number of participants in the Customer Satisfaction Survey and continue the survey for at least two years has been reached with NHBC.A revised set of core model contract terms, meeting the OFT’s key concerns, has been submitted to the OFT, whom we will meet on 31 October. Maintaining dialogue with the OFT is important. Kate Barker’s date for achieving a significant improvement in Customer Satisfaction was three years, taking us to March 2007.
MMC (Barker Recommendation 33)
Recommendation 33 called on HBF to consider how to overcome the barriers to wider adoption of MMC. HBF set up a Cross-Industry Steering Group which produced a report in February 2006. Its recommendation that HBF set up a Group’s “legacy body” has seen good progress recently, with an announcement due shortly. Its remit will go beyond a narrow focus on MMC to consider how to remove key production barriers to achieving the Government’s target of 200,000 homes per year by 2016.
Planning issues
National Planning Conference
The National Planning Conference in Milton Keynes last month attracted a record number of delegates. The agenda was challenging with presentations on many of the evolving hot topics of the day, including sustainable development and affordable housing provision.
DCLG policy was discussed by Colin Byrne, the new Director of Planning at the department and we were pleased that Michael Gove was able to attend and give an insight into the Conservatives’ policy on housing and planning.
Affordable housing delivery took up the afternoon, with Steve Douglas of the Housing Corporation demonstrating the extent of changes in the public/private partnership arena by giving a preview of the corporation’s proposals for new approaches to investment.
Whilst the subject matter was sometimes tricky, in this area details are everything, and it is vital for members to be equipped with the right information. The seniority of speakers that organisations are prepared to field is a true indication of the level of regard that they have for the private sector and HBF as the collective body for the industry.
Regions
Regionally the planning agenda continues to be dominated by the Regional Spatial Strategy process. The North East panel report was published, endorsing the level of housing provision supported by HBF. The Yorkshire and Humber Examination in Public is currently underway and formal submissions have been made for the North West and South West draft strategies.
As these are spatial plans the RSS debate is not merely about more housing numbers. HBF representations have been more focused on realistic delivery of the vision and objectives for each region. Economic and other strategies are, therefore, important drivers in the same way as household projections are a vital indicator of the overall level of housing provision needed in each region.
Nationally we have been busy responding to DCLG consultation papers, details of which have been referred to in previous updates. Copies of all our responses are available on our website.
Technical affairs
National Technical Conference
A reminder to anyone who has not yet booked a place: this year’s National Technical Conference on 9 November will cover Regulations and the Code for Sustainable Homes.
Waste
HBF’s proposals for waste management are now being seriously considered and are included in a recent Government consultation. You will recall that HBF has been campaigning for some time now and it is gratifying that we are finally seeing some results. DCLG and Defra have issued a joint consultation on Planning and Pollution Control and Defra has simultaneously issued a second consultation on an Environmental Permitting Programme. Responses are due by 6 December 2007 and members are urged to respond. The HBF’s Contaminated Land Sub Committee will be meeting to agree the HBF response.
Utilities
Following analysis of the questionnaire sent out to members (and may I express my gratitude to all those who kindly participated) HBF has written to government outlining the problems and seeking Ministers’ view on how to resolve these. As part of a campaign raising awareness through the media the story was the subject of press comment in the Times on 27 September.
Code for Sustainable Homes
Full details have not yet been determined and there is still no firm date for implementation, but it is likely that this will now be early in 2007.
Building Regulations
HBF organised several meetings with members and with representatives of various bodies to talk about how the current regulatory system could be improved and several interesting suggestions were made which are now being considered with a view to putting some concrete propsals to DCLG.
In the meantime the latest amendments to Part B will now come into force in April 2007 - an announcement will be made in the autumn.
The consultation on water conservation (which may mean a change to Building Regulations) is now expected later in the year.
Innovate for Homes
Details of the products submitted in the first round will be available at HB06 and a second round has been through the preliminary vetting procedure. Members are encouraged to put forward innovative ideas for dealing with energy and water saving, as these will be of particular interest once the Code is in place.
Health and Safety
HBF’s Health & Safety web pages are available for members to visit, with documents available from working parties set up by the committee. These are also available to members who have not yet signed up to the Charter. New signatories are always welcome.
HBF had been running a trial of an electronic design forum all through September and we will be analysing the results in the autumn.
As always, don’t hesitate to contact me or any of our team at St James’ Street for feedback, views or ideas.
Stewart Baseley
Executive Chairman