Shelagh Grant, Chief Executive, The Housing Forum 12 th November T HE A FFORDABLE H OUSING G ROUP “T HE H OUSING F ORUM R OUND -U P ”

I NFLUENCING, NETWORKING, INFORMING Membership Growth and Cross Sector Relevance Since the last AHG

S INCE THE LAST AHG CEO Forum ( on our website at: )  The New Politics of Housing (London)  Investing in our Housing Estates (Leicester)  Development and Partnering (Bristol)  The Growth of Cambridge (Cambridge)  The Housing and Planning Bill (Leeds)  Collaborating for value (Birmingham)

Plus:  Home Performance Labelling Consortium  Workshops with Fusion Steel, Northampton and a2dominion at Bicester  Innovation Workshop “Hot Homes; The Heated Debate”  The National Conference 2015  More Homes for London

N EXT E VENT  21 st C. Approach to Asset Management and Procurement – 18 th November at Reigate with Osborne

C URRENT I SSUES What our members say …  Affordability is a key concern – for home ownership £200,000 in the north, £500,000 in south  The Housing and Planning Bill is not specific enough in addressing affordability and focuses on specific sections of the market  Affordable homes delivery through s.106 is now difficult to achieve in some areas due to the impact of rent reductions and supply side issues  Housing associations are reducing affordable homes delivery by up to half but many are keeping to overall build volumes

Current Issues Other Tenures:  If PRS is to become affordable, planning will have to change; planning requirements have to become much more flexible to respond to new affordability pressures  Starter Homes – likely to go well with 20% discounts  Simple, well thought through designs needed

Current Issues Delivery:  Underlying demand for housing is strong – HBF reported 261,000 planning permissions year to March 2015 – highest in 8 years  Development without grant – evidence of contractor plus models with investor purchasing land for development in phases with contractor taking risk and gains from sales  Skills shortages persist

T HE H OUSING F ORUM W ORKING G ROUPS  Reports launched in July

T HE N EXT G ENERATION  Achieving High Quality Housing (Costs and Standards)  Increasing Supply (Starter homes… building at scale)  Performance of Assets (Maintenance, efficiency, skills, digitalisation)

2016 Programme – Launching 1 st December  Working Groups  Cross Sector Market Workshops  Manchester 12 th January  Taunton 10 th February  Peterborough 24 th March  Innovation Workshops  Local Authority Forum – London 14 th January  Affordable Housing Group See Website: for further informationwww.housingforum.org.uk