Patrick Flaherty, chief executive – UK & Ireland, Aecom
Housing should not be tackled in isolation. New homes must be built in lock-step with infrastructure and employment opportunities.
A joined-up approach that recognises the symbiotic relationship between housing, transport infrastructure, hospitals, schools and jobs is required. And a broader choice of dwelling types and tenures, so that homes are built as part of sustainable communities, is essential.
Addressing the shortfall requires region-wide collaboration and vision. Key to this will be building a “coalition of the willing” with local authorities surrounding the capital that want to share in economic growth and are prepared to look beyond local housing needs.
Brian Berry, chief executive, Federation of Master Builders
If the new mayor of London wants to address the housing crisis, he must focus on revitalising the SME house building sector. He has – quite rightly – set himself some very ambitious targets on housing and to achieve them, smaller house builders need to be firing on all cylinders.
SMEs are well suited to build out sites more quickly, which will assist in increasing the speed of delivery, and they are capable of building out the small and micro sites that will be cumulatively crucial in delivering sufficient numbers.
To this end, giving SMEs a fair chance with public land designated for housing would be a welcome boost.
Sadiq Khan has insisted he wants to work hand in hand with the house building industry to boost numbers, so we’re hoping he’ll soon grasp how counter-productive imposing a uniform 50% affordable housing target would be. If he really insists upon one in two homes in every development being affordable, then a lot of those developments simply won’t get built.
Shelagh Grant, chief executive, Housing Forum
We should have mixed affordable communities – we should strive for that. That would be a great legacy for London.
We appreciate the mayor set out housing so centrally to his campaign, we think that was the right thing to do. Inevitably there has to be some flexibility looking at individual sites and probably the need to be some strategy for thresholds on affordable housing. You can’t be too rigid, but you have to understand how the market works.
There are many challenges with estate regeneration and communities should have their say if they want to stay together, but at the same time it is a problem to get the same level of density in when you’re redeveloping.
Eddie Tuttle, principal policy and public affairs manager, CIOB
There needs to be pan-government collaboration across the GLA, Whitehall, Westminster and local authorities both in and outside Greater London if effective action is to be taken – the mayor’s powers only go so far.
The declining number of housing starts, the changing role of housing associations following reductions in social rents, and public attitudes towards density and development all require addressing.
A shortage of construction skills could also further damage Khan’s housing and infrastructure plans, so firms need to be encouraged to train and recruit people to careers in the construction sector.
Mark Robinson, chief executive officer, Scape Group
The new mayor will understand that his priority is to deliver on his housing pledges, but to meet his promise of 80,000 new homes a year, he will need to get London building homes at a faster rate than either of his predecessors.
The new mayor must act quickly to provide the detail on how he will change the London Plan and exactly when and how he will “call in” planning decisions that don’t provide sufficient numbers of affordable homes.
Local authorities have been unable to deliver more affordable housing because of restrictions on public spending, and the new administration at City Hall will have to set out exactly how it will increase the number of affordable homes within these spending limits.
