HomeLet’s latest Rental Index revealed that 33.2% of a typical income is spent on rent — and while this is the result of many factors which have been aired previously, the most significant is undoubtedly a lack of supply.
The cause is the woefully low number of new homes being built — just 191,801 during 2022.
While the proportions delivered by both housing associations and private sector have increased significantly, the deficit of affordable homes looks set to remain.
But from Scarborough to West Sussex and Maidenhead to Cambridge, Carter Jonas is involved in partnerships and pioneering developments which are significantly increasing delivery in these areas.
For example, we are working with Cambridge Investment Partnership (CIP) to deliver 1,000 new council homes in Cambridge.
CIP was established as a partnership between Cambridge City Council and local housebuilder Hill, in response to the ever-growing housing list which, bearing in mind local land prices, clearly wasn’t going to be solved by the private sector alone.
The first project completed with CIP was a site purchased through the open market which achieved policy compliant levels of affordable housing, at 40%.
Since then, several projects have focused on sites already owned by the council, delivering 100% of the new homes as council homes.
The benefits of the public sector retaining an interest in its land, to the benefit of local residents are demonstrated very clearly in each of these schemes.
Furthermore, Cambridge City Council has an unrivalled insight into its tenants’ needs and is uniquely placed to communicate effectively with tenants and help deliver the type of housing most in need.
The private sector complements this by proving the skills to navigate the planning system and advise on appraisals, construction schedules and the many technical issues.
And CIP has been very successful, all receiving planning permission at the first attempt. The model demonstrates the benefits of combining the knowledge and insight of the council with the expertise of its development partners is resulting in a very timely and positive uplift in the delivery of affordable housing.
With the CIP model now being rolled out in neighbouring South Cambridgeshire, led by the same teams at Hill and Carter Jonas, this success is likely to be replicated more frequently elsewhere.
