Cover Story: Syriza the day

Can Corbyn and Healey bring social housing in from the cold?

Love or loathe his wider politics, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has thrust social housing onto the agenda, and into the heart of the political process, but it’s up to the tenure’s supporters to make the most of this unexpected Parliamentary ally

By Mark Cantrell

This article first appeared in the October/November 2015 edition of Housing magazine

THE Prime Minister described the situation as a threat to our national security, our economic security, and even our family security.

Despite being a tad on the hyperbolic side, it’s a pretty apt description of the housing crisis. There was just one slight snag – that’s not what he meant. David Cameron was taking a potshot at the gatecrasher to the party – Jeremy Corbyn – and by extension all those people who had the temerity to cast their vote his way, rather than for one of the three mainstay contenders that were Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall.

Presumably, given the Prime Minister’s comment, MI5’s going to be pretty busy over the next few months dealing with all those dangerous subversives who so rudely interrupted the political status quo. Meanwhile, love him or loathe him, Corbyn is now the leader of the Labour Party and of Her Majesty’s Official Opposition, and to cap it all – despite the mainstream media’s best efforts – he appears to be making a rather respectable show of it all. That just wasn’t supposed to happen.

The Islington North MP was, of course, expected to be something of a comedy candidate, the token Lefty ‘also-ran’ destined for a swift return to backbench obscurity. Well nobody’s laughing now. Even so, we haven’t quite heard the last of his epitaph, written well before he won the leadership election, that here is the man who led the Labour Party to electoral oblivion in 2020.

That may well be a portentous warning. It might also be nothing more than wishful thinking, hurled out in a fit of pique by a media commentariat and a political establishment not used to being placed on the backfoot by the ‘little people’. So it goes. Just what impact Corbyn will have on Labour’s fortunes in the General Election nearly five long years from now is in all honesty impossible to say with any real certainty.

After all, pundits decreed we’d have another coalition government right now; instead we have a Conservative government with a slender majority. Received wisdom knew Corbyn was heading back to the backbenches after a brief moment in the limelight, but there he stands as leader of the Opposition. Politics can be a fickle game.

Corbyn’s political opponents may yet topple him, if and when they deem it politically expedient to do so; on the other hand, he may continue to traduce expectations and find himself propelled into Number 10. Who knows? Stranger things have happened.

In the meantime, the political dynamic has been disrupted. Corbyn has disturbed an ideological equilibrium that has prevailed for nigh on 20 years between the main parties contending for government office.

Regardless of our individual regard for his views on any number of issues, his wildcard entry into frontline politics has got to be a tonic for the health of our national democracy. Whether it can translate into any beneficial impact on the bread and butter concerns we ‘ordinary mortals’ face is another matter, of course. Much like the Conservative Party – or indeed the housing world – the Labour Party is a broad church of competing factions. Inevitably, Corbyn must – indeed has – built himself an internal coalition. Opposition, like Government, is no one-man band.

In a roundabout way, this brings us back to the trials and tribulations of the housing world. Like it or not, what we still nominally call the social housing sector must work with what it’s got, especially at a time when it needs all the political allies it can get.

Regardless of his wider political package, Corbyn represents a seismic shift in the political landscape. He has thrust housing into the heart of the political arena, a situation further reinforced by his appointment of John Healey MP as shadow housing and planning minister.

Both have made it clear that social housing is a must-have part of any package to solve the housing crisis. In so doing, they have cracked the cosy – dare one say lazy – consensus of recent years that has all but said we can have any solution to the housing crisis, so long as it is based on some form of home ownership; it’s the only politically correct solution.

Well, Corbyn is no Messiah, he may not even be a naughty boy, but in this context at least, he’s certainly not one for political correctness gone mad.

There’s more to legislation and policy than Government. There’s Opposition too. For a sector so ready to declare itself willing to work with the former, it can’t then become squeamish at the prospect of working with the latter, especially when it has made housing, especially social housing, such an important part of its stance.

For those of you committed to social housing as an integral and essential part of the solution to the housing crisis, Corbyn is a natural ally. You don’t need to agree with his wider politics. The housing world must ask itself what’s more important to it – solving (rather than profiting from) the housing crisis or maintaining appearances of political respectability.

# # #

Reaction: Shifting the spectrum?

Betsy Dillner, director of Generation Rent

The election of Jeremy Corbyn has rocked UK politics. There are many huge implications of his victory that are far too weighty for a humble campaign organisation to comment on, but it is safe to say that, in this corner of the policy world, it marks a major development in the political response to the housing crisis.

Housing reached new heights on the political agenda during the General Election, with Labour offering real regulation of the private rented sector, the Greens pushing them further on taxation and rent control, and the Conservatives trying to defuse the concerns of the priced out. Upon resuming power, the Conservatives announced reform of landlord taxation and proposed measures to improve enforcement of housing law – though they continue to pursue damaging policies like Right to Buy 2.

Initially it seemed that the Labour leadership contenders, after flirting with market intervention under Ed Miliband, might retreat into orthodoxy and omerta on housing policy. But Corbyn made housing one of his major themes – and went above and beyond what Labour offered at the election, with unabashed rent control, a programme of council house building, and even the extension of right to buy to the private sector.

This tone clearly resonated with younger voters who are facing lifetimes of renting, who flocked to take part in the election. Now that he’s Leader of the Opposition, the housing debate, already chugging along, should go up a gear or two. Corbyn has appointed a team of shadow ministers with a focus on housing, including John Healey, a housing minister in the last [Labour] government and an active campaigner on social housing.

With a huge amount of scrutiny already descending upon his leadership, Corbyn’s team should ensure that his proposals for the housing market are robust. Generation Rent has called for rent control as an immediate solution to the enormous burden renters are under, but this cannot sustainably compensate for a shortfall in supply. Our model of rent control includes a mechanism whereby a landlord can charge a higher rent in return for payment into a local pot to build social housing.

We’re also calling for a secondary housing market that is shielded from the effects of house price inflation. Houses would be built and sold at a discount on the condition that they could only be resold at a regulated price.

Private renting will only keep growing over the next decade, along with demand for policies that will fix the housing crisis. Corbyn has a chance to forge a new vision for the housing market and we hope he and his counterparts in the other parties will develop real solutions.

Tom Murtha, retired housing association chief executive, and social housing campaigner

Earlier this year I wrote about the victory of the anti-austerity party in the Greek election. I predicted that the media, bankers, financiers and other supporters of neo-liberalism would fight back to protect their interests. I fear that the same thing will happen following the overwhelming victory of Jeremy Corbyn in the Labour leadership elections.

We are already witnessing the demonization of the new leader in the media and elsewhere, no doubt coordinated by those who have the most to lose both financially and politically from his policies. It is too soon to say if he will crash and burn as the Syriza Party did in Greece.

Yet if we look at what he is saying there is much for us in social housing to welcome. What other party leader has used his first questions to the Prime Minister to ask about housing, welfare reform, health and other issues? All of which are directly relevant to the social housing sector.

The anti-austerity movement provides an economically viable alternative to the neo-liberal status quo that currently dominates politics in the UK and beyond. It argues that we should invest in the welfare state and elsewhere and reject the cuts to social security and allied services that have devastated the lives of so many people who live in social housing. It argues that we should invest in our infrastructure including social housing because we need homes that are truly affordable to those in need, and because it saves money and boosts the economy. It recognises that social housing is a tenure to be proud of and supported for the role it plays in providing a decent home which is a foundation for hope and opportunity in many people’s lives.

This belief is exemplified in the choice of John Healey as the shadow housing minister. He is someone who understands and supports social housing. He played a major role in the creation of SHOUT which campaigns for social housing. He realises the financial and social benefits of government investment in social housing. I doubt if he supports all of the new leader’s policies, not many of us do, but he is willing to serve because he knows that millions are suffering because of the austerity ideology.

Many of these people live or would want to live in our homes. They have been demonised and suffered cuts in their income and their living standards. They are being priced out of living in decent accommodation and can no longer afford to live in some areas. I believe that many people supported Jeremy Corbyn because his alternative view gives hope to these people and more. If he provides hope in this bleak wilderness I for one am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

I am pleased that many young people have been enthused by his campaign. There is another lesson here for social housing. If we really want to bring about change and improve the lives of those we were set up to help, we must break out of the housing bubble and reach out to those who would not normally get involved. Crowd sourcing questions for the Prime Minister is a great example of this. If you are open and show people that you have vision and values and integrity they will support you. We need our leaders in social housing to do the same.

# # #

Further industry reaction:

TERRIE ALAFAT, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing, said: “It’s good to see that the new leader of the opposition has identified housing as a top priority. It is one he shares with the electorate. It will be interesting to see how he approaches housing policy – I think it will stimulate more public debate about how we can tackle the housing crisis.

“John Healey, the new shadow minister for housing and planning, has experience of the housing brief in government and it is good to see the shadow housing minister being given a place in the shadow cabinet, which reflects housing’s importance.”

HENRY GREGG, assistant director of the National Housing Federation, said: “We welcome the appointment of Jon Trickett MP [as shadow community secretary] and John Healey MP and congratulate them on their new roles. We look forward to working with them on ways to end the housing crisis. We are especially keen to talk to them about ways that housing associations can boost the nation’s affordable housing supply and about the fantastic work that housing associations do in their communities.”

This article first appeared as the cover story to the October/November 2015 print edition of Housing magazine. It subsequently appeared on the Housing Excellence website, 6 November 2015. 

Photo: Ninian Reid. Creative Commons. Some rights reserved

An education in housing

Go to the top of the asset class 

Student accommodation is becoming big business, having emerged as an attractive asset class for investors. In the process, it might offer clues to the creation of an institutional private rented sector 

By Mark Cantrell

This article first appeared in the June/July edition of Housing magazine

STUDENT accommodation isn’t quite what it used to be. For those old enough to feel a certain wistful nostalgia, the traditional halls of residence remain, as do student digs in the private rented sector, but over the last few years the market has seen an influx of institutional investment that has wrought profound changes not only to the way many students now live but also in their expectations.

“Student accommodation has come on leaps and bounds since I was studying. It wasn’t so long ago that a box room and shared bathroom facilities were the norm for students across the board. The student accommodation sector now is a completely different landscape,” said Bob Crompton, chief executive of Student Housing Company (SHC).

“As the power of the consumer has risen over the last couple of decades, so have expectations for quality, service and tailored offerings. Increasingly, students nowadays are looking for more than just a room. They are not only after excellent properties in unrivalled locations, they also want fantastic around the clock support and facilities, and that puts additional pressure on student housing providers.”

Consumer-power may well be leading change, but investors appear to be driving it. SHC is what you might call one of the ‘new breed’ of companies that are as much developing this market as they are catering for it. SHC was established in June 2011 by Knightsbridge Student Housing to market and manage its student accommodation across the UK. This latter company was itself established almost a year earlier, in July 2010, by Oaktree Capital Management, which specialises in emerging and alternative investment markets on behalf of a range of individual and institutional investors.

Knightsbridge states an intention to acquire £1bn worth of student property assets, indicating how attractive this emerging market has become; investors clearly smell money in the air. And those behind Knightsbridge are not the only ones.

In April, to give one quick example, investment management firm Round Hill Capital sold its Nido London portfolio of luxury student accommodation to Greystar Real Estate Partners for a cool £600 million. This consists of three “premium” sites in London’s King’s Cross, Notting Hill and Spitalfields areas that combined accounted for 2,375 beds in a mixture of cluster flats and large studio apartments, with facilities such as gyms, cinema and karaoke rooms, bars and so forth – a far cry from many a traditional hall of residence.

You might call Round Hill an early adopter; when it bought this portfolio from Blackstone in May 2012 for £415 million, the UK student housing market had not then – it said – “established itself as an institutional asset class”.

“Round Hill identified student housing as an institutional investment grade opportunity well before other investors in the market and this sale underlines our strategy to invest in high quality portfolios and exploit first mover advantages,” said Michael Bickford, the firm’s founder and chief executive. “We still see significant value in the sector both in the UK and Europe and will continue to invest in quality assets like these which we can reposition for a higher and more stable operating profit and then sell to core investors looking for long-term stable income.”

So, the student accommodation market may not be big business – it remains something of a specialist niche market – but nevertheless it clearly represents serious money, and student accommodation has come to be seen as a legitimate, mainstream asset class.

The underlying causes are many and entwined. The changing demographics of the student body, the rise in student numbers, the increasing significance of foreign students, the impact of tuition fees have all impacted on the changing face of the market. As with any other, it has its ups and downs, but all told the purpose-built student accommodation market has risen relentlessly, driven by consumer-savvy youth no longer quite so prepared to slum it like their parents’ generation, and fuelled by shrewd investors looking for a secure, long-term – and relatively low-risk – return on their capital.

“The attraction of the student accommodation sector has been driven by the story of structural undersupply and positive rental growth every year throughout the economic downturn,” said Knight Frank’s 2014 Student Property Index. “We forecast this contra-cyclical dynamic will remain the driving force behind investment into the medium term. The structural undersupply remains in all key university markets and this will ensure positive rental growth remains a defining characteristic.”

About the same period, Savills was talking about a “surge” in activity over the preceding two years, as the appetite among investors for student accommodation as an asset class began to gain a kind of critical mass.

In 2012-13, £5bn worth of standing stock and development sites were sold. In the first four months of 2014, transactions worth £950 million took place, equating to over 17,000 beds, and Savills anticipated £2.5bn by the year end.

That report was nigh on a year ago, of course, so it remains to be seen quite how 2014 panned out in the end, but with the next edition of its student spotlight in production, the overall theme remains the “ongoing maturity of the sector as an investment class” according to Neal Hudson, associate director of residential research.

“It’s very much a niche sector that’s grown up,” he said. “It started to attract UK private equity investment and now it’s moving into the mainstream where it’s attracting international wealth and some of the longer-term investors from institutions, so it’s really become a recognised asset class. Accordingly, there’s been a lot more activity in the market.”

The universities themselves continue to provide accommodation, and despite a drop in what they provide, there’s little sign of them retreating from offering accommodation. Well, why would they – they provide an income stream not just from students, but from conference activities too. It’s not so much that private investor-backed provision is competing with university provision as complementing it – at least for now – and sometimes in partnership.

As it is, higher education establishments have long been unable to cater for their entire student body, so there’s plenty of leeway for private providers to step in; if anything, it’s perhaps those landlords renting out traditional student digs that stand to lose out the most as the institutional investors move in.

“The number of beds provided by institutions continues to slowly reduce from a peak of 260,000 in 2001 to the current provision of 247,000,” according to the latest Higher Education Statistics report from the Association of University Directors of Estate (AUDE), published late 2014. “Private sector provision has transformed the landscape and now provides over 100,000 beds for institutions (these are beds that are considered part of the institution’s own provision via a lease or hard nominations agreement).

In 2001/2 the amount of beds represented 16% of the total number of taught students, now the percentage is 13%. However, if private provision is also included, this represents 19% of the student headcount.”

Savills added in its report: “One in every four full-time students lives in purpose built student accommodation. The market has matured significantly in recent years with greater competition from private sector providers through the direct-let market or by providing accommodation on behalf of the university.”

For all the growth in purpose built accommodation, as Knight Frank pointed out, it remains a “structurally under-supplied” market, so there’s plenty of scope for investors.

As with any investment area, however, there are risks. Student numbers could fall, for instance, leaving a glut of properties with no takers; although the UCAS figures from January suggest this risk isn’t currently high. The organisation reported that the number of applicants this year has risen 2% over the same period last year to reach 592,290 although it said the increase was smaller than in recent years. Of this increase, only 1% were UK applications, but there was a 7% increase from the EU and a 3% increase from outside the EU.

Those overseas students are pertinent when it comes to the matter of immigration policy. Foreign students are an attractive market and policies that may – even if inadvertently – dampen international demand for UK university places is bound to make investors twitchy. They don’t like uncertainty, after all, and fewer numbers inevitably hits the income stream. Students from overseas tend to have money behind them, whether that’s family, business or state backing, so they can absorb the premium fees and accommodation costs, they are charged.

UK students, of course, face higher costs. In the 2012-13 academic year undergraduates were hit with the introduction of fees of up to £9,000 prompting Savills to note “it is no surprise that the number of students fell by 7.4%”. Numbers may have picked up again since, but the inevitable ups and downs in numbers, finances and employment prospects certainly add a degree of uncertainty – and therefore risk – to investors contemplating future demand and the prospect for returns on their capital.

Factor in a demographic “crunch” over the next eight to 10 years and the international market can only become all the more important. As Savills’ report added: “The number of people born 18 years previously peaked in 2012 (those born in 1994) at 750,000 and will have declined to 650,000 in 2020 (those born in 2002). This could reduce the potential domestic student market.”

Students come and go, but they are perennial for all that, but the market that has emerged to cater for their needs may offer at least a few clues for those pondering the burgeoning private rented sector and how to foster the emergence of a large scale institutional form of provision.

“Certainly there are lessons to be learned from the student housing sector,” said Savills’ Hudson. “It’s further ahead in that process than the private rented sector.”

# # #

Tales of the city

High-flying City boys have been knocked off their perch in some of London’s prime rental hotspots – by students of all people.

But these aren’t just any student; they’re international students, high-wealth individuals with the spending power to soak up the capital’s premium rents without breaking a sweat. Since the 2008 crash this group has displaced those historically dominant bankers, according to research by high-end property business London Central Portfolio (LCP).

According to LCP, finance professionals have been the mainstay of the rental market in prime central London’s (PCL) most exclusive neighbourhoods, but their dominance was cut short by swathes of job losses that cut through the sector in the wake of the credit crunch. International students have since stepped in to take up the slack.

“The increase in student renters in PCL should be no surprise. Westminster houses three of the best universities in the world – Imperial College, University College London, and LSE – and sees 100,000 students visiting a year,” said Naomi Heaton, LCP’s chief executive.

“London has become a magnet to these privately wealthy young adults looking for top quality accommodation to go with their top drawer education, as parents are keen to install their children in the best, most secure homes.”

Back in 2006, international students accounted for 12% of PCL tenancies, the company said; in the last 12 months, they represented 34% of tenancy starts. Bankers have slipped to second place at 31% followed by lawyers and accountants at 11%. The most popular area for the students is, apparently, Marylebone with 23% opting to rent there, but other popular places are Knightsbridge and Fitzrovia at 10% each.

Heaton added: “Landlords are increasingly buying into the concept of international student tenants. Many have experienced a sophisticated lifestyle: they treat properties with the same care as corporate tenants but the wealth underpinning them is stronger. This means they can often outbid professional tenants, offering higher rents and as they have no recorded credit history in the UK, they tend to pay a year upfront. The average rent paid last year by student tenants has been  £2,405 a month.


This article first appeared in the June/July 2015 print edition of Housing magazine. It was subsequently republished on the Housing Excellence website, 3 July 2015

Timber in retail construction

Timber makes a coffee mate

Savvy retailers are learning that wood has a winning aesthetic for today’s more eco-conscious consumers, and given its innate sustainable credentials it means retail therapy doesn’t have to be quite such a guilty pleasure reports Mark Cantrell

This feature first appeared in the Summer 2015 print edition of Timber in Construction

FANCY a coffee? No, of course you don’t – you’re here for the timber. But there’s a place just opened in Wrekin where you can imbibe a caffeine hit and check out some innovative timber engineering while you’re at it. Okay, you can have a cup of tea if you really must.

Anyway, cafe chain Costa, part of the Whitbread retail empire, has opened its first so-called ‘Eco Pod’ store at Wrekin Retail Park, near Telford in Shropshire. It’s a regular coffee shop as far as the retail side goes, but from a design and construction perspective, it features the kinds of innovations and energy saving technologies intended to make it a ‘zero energy’ building.

Obviously, it’s not going to be completely ‘zero’ energy – nobody wants cold coffee, right? – but passive ventilation and those construction techniques are supposed to greatly reduce the energy required for space heating and cooling. This energy requirement, so we are told, will be covered by solar photovoltaic cells embedded in the specially curved roof.

The retail park is owned by a company called Hammerson. In fact, it owns the carbon neutral Eco Pod too and leases it to Costa, but the two companies worked together to explore and develop the concept.

“This is an exciting first for coffee shop and retail design here in the UK and has the potential to transform not just how we build new stores at Costa, but the industry far more widely,” said Jim Slater, managing director of Costa UK & Ireland.

“We wanted to explore new ways to serve quality coffee to our customers while managing our environmental footprint as responsibly as we can. Through a successful partnership with Hammerson, we have developed an outstanding new type of test bed building design which really does have the potential to make a massive difference if rolled out more widely.”

Key design features include:

• A glulam timber frame constructed using FSC-sourced timber as an alternative to traditional steel frame, reducing the building’s embodied carbon footprint
• A super-insulated facade using softwood said to have excellent energy retention properties. As such, it keeps more heat in during the winter but helps keep the inside cool during the summer
• “Intelligent” orientation of the building so that it achieves optimum levels of sun and shade, which impacts on the overall energy requirements for heating and cooling
• An underfloor heating system and passive ventilation

Hammerson and Costa called in architects Emission Zero, which specialise in low carbon design, while the project was managed by Projex Building Solutions. The glulam frames were designed and made by Fordingbridge.

“The development is pioneering for retail units of this type owing to the ‘zero energy’ design and collaborative working of the supply chain to develop the project from desk top theory into reality,” said Projex. “The design principles drive a zero energy building, whereby the running costs are set off by the energy savings generated by sustainable solutions such as thermal mass heating and cooling, passive ventilation, and photovoltaic energy storage.

“By embracing the supply chain from desk top feasibility as opposed to the more conventional post-contract design and build introduction, we have generated a sustainable building with zero energy performance and understated aesthetic appeal with the potential to become market leading.”

Tom Cochrane, Hammerson’s asset manager said: “The opening of the Costa Eco Pod is a significant achievement for our team and clearly demonstrates that as a business Hammerson is at the forefront of consumer awareness of supply chain ethics and environmental impacts. By working collaboratively, we have been able to provide Costa with an entirely new and innovative concept store, as well as a UK first. Using this blueprint for low-carbon sustainable design we hope to support, where possible, other retailers in creating truly sustainable assets.”

Clearly, the partners are proud of their eco-baby and have every confidence in its capabilities. Provisionally, the Eco Pod has been given an Energy Performance Certificate rating of A+. But there’s a while to go before the building proves the eco-hype in practice; it opened early April and the plan is to monitor its performance over the next six to 12 months. The proof of the muffin is in the eating, after all.

Costa might have scored itself a PR coup with its eye-catching coffee shop, but it’s not the only retailer that is looking to make the most of timber as a natural-born building material. And there are plenty of reasons why, from the aesthetics of wood, through its structural capabilities, all the way to its environmental credentials as a means to lock away carbon emissions in the built environment.

“Wood as a building material is unique and flexible,” said Ellen Jones, architect at Bedford-based Woods Hardwick. “It has inherent aesthetic, textural and sensual qualities, and as a result can be utilised within buildings for structural purposes right through to decorative finishes. Through managed and sustainable sources we have plentiful, cost-effective and ecologically sound supply, which is preferable from historically damaging alternatives.”

The advantages of timber are many, said Jones; namely:

• The UK is a world leader in advanced engineered timber construction. Timber engineering, including SIPS, has the advantage of being manufactured off-site. Light enough to provide fast on-site assembly, it reduces build times and costs dramatically
• Buildings using timber are more textural and tactile than traditional steel-framed constructions. In Jones’s view they “feel softer and more relaxed” than steel and will therefore provide a different experience visually as well as spatially
• Timber engineered frame solutions offer “excellent” thermal, fire and acoustic properties and are able to “better resist” environmental influences and chemicals compared to structures using alternative materials
• By-products from the timber manufacturing process can be fully recycled
• Wood products such as glulam and cross-laminated timber provide “infinite” design possibilities without compromising on structural design. By being cost-effective and an “excellent ecological building material”, Jones said Woods Hardwick is able to provide its commercial clients with innovative designs that satisfy both cost requirements and environmental standards

“Looking to the future and the increasing requirements on carbon reduction to satisfy even the most basic requirements, we feel timber will have an increasing role in reaching this conjunction with low-carbon technologies. At Woods Hardwick we will continue to advocate the use of wood in our designs and communicate the many benefits it provides,” Jones added.

In Corby, Northamptonshire, the firm has applied its thinking on behalf of Tesco with the design and construction of a new so-called Eco Store and an associated petrol station. The latter inevitably invites a raised eyebrow, motorists’ collected carbon emissions considered, but the stores themselves have been constructed to minimise their impact on the environment.

The new Tesco Eco Store provides 82,565 sq ft of sales space and occupies a 7.8 hectare former brownfield site that was a leftover relic of the town’s steel working industry. This made it a challenging project, by all accounts, but in its landscaped setting, wrapped in an ‘ecology zone’, the new store was built to establish a striking presence. The single-storey supermarket is clad in a combination of curtain walling and timber structural insulated panels (SIPs) faced in a larch outer rainscreen. It has achieved a BREAAM ‘Very Good’ rating.

“This was a challenging and exacting brief to work on,” said Jones, who was lead architect on the Corby project. “Our response was driven by the complexity of the site’s heritage and the context that what was principally an out of town development was to be treated and viewed as an in-town development.”

Woods Hardwick is working to deliver another Tesco Eco Store, this one in Newmarket, Suffolk, but it is hoped to follow in the – reduced – carbon footprint of its Corby sibling and achieve BREAAM ‘Very Good’. Again, it’s a brownfield site but on this occasion it is replacing an earlier Tesco store that was opened in the 1980s.

Like its Corby counterpart, the Newmarket Eco Store resides in a landscaped setting and has an associated filling station, although this one – a single food store – is smaller at 70,000 sq ft. It will be clad in a combination of glazed curtain walling to the front elevation and timber cassette panels faced in a larch outer rainscreen to the side elevations. Inside the store, the engineered timber frame is to be left exposed. The idea is to link the “strong visual aesthetic of timber inside and out”. The frame also reduces the building’s embedded carbon by 20-25%.

The fabric complements the energy efficiency elements incorporated into the buildings: a combined heat and power unit, a draught lobby intended to reduce heat loss, rainwater harvesting, improved service metering and CO2 refrigeration to reduce carbon emissions. The store will also make use of a mixed mode ventilation scheme, making use of roof-mounted windcatchers. It will also feature large rooflights to allow natural daylight onto the sales floor. These will supplement artificial lighting and also, it is claimed, prevent excess heat loss or gain. The shell is due to be completed in August with the fit-out completed at the end of this year.

Shopping, as retail firms know all too well, is about more than the cold mechanics of assembling the building and kitting it out; it has to appeal at an almost subliminal level, creating an alluring welcoming presence, that is as much marketing art and psychology as it is science and engineering.

Wood, with its natural, almost homely aesthetic, is clearly a winning material in the retail war to win consumer hearts and minds. That it also evokes the environment and green living in this carbon conscious era is clearly the icing on the cake.


This article first appeared in the Summer 2015 print edition of Timber in Construction magazine. It was subsequently published on the Timber in Construction website, 29 June 2015

Cover Story: Election blues, Cameron takes the house

Cameron’s “sweetest victory” has a bitter taste for housing

The unexpected election of a full-blooded Conservative Government has sent the housing world into some disarray, but as it contemplates its fortunes under this new regime, it may find some of its gravest threats invigorate its greatest strengths

By Mark Cantrell

First published in the June/July print edition of Housing magazine

REVENGE may be a dish best served cold, but if there’s any consolation for the housing world – still reeling from the shock ‘Tory Spring’ that returned a majority Conservative Government – it’s that David Cameron has bigger fish to fry.

In any case, when it comes to dishing out payback for the housing world’s ‘disloyalty’ prior to the election, Cameron may already feel a sense of ‘vengeance is mine’ with his proposal to extend Right-to-Buy to housing associations. Even if the policy doesn’t make it onto the statute books, resisting it will serve to harass and distract an already embattled sector.

A slap in the face, followed by a dismissal, isn’t much to show for months of hard campaigning and years of lobbying for a resolution to the housing crisis. For now, at least, it seems evident that the new Government can dismiss the housing world’s major players as a defeated foe.

The Prime Minister, meanwhile, no doubt haunted by the experiences of his predecessors – Margaret Thatcher, John Major, even Tony Blair – and the somewhat bruising end to their premierships is already looking ahead to his exit strategy. He has indicated he will not do a third term. If he holds to this purpose, he won’t be in office come the 2020 general election, so he can’t afford to hang about and gloat.

Obviously, the Conservative Party will want a new leader bedded in well before the next battle for Number 10 commences, which leaves Cameron a tight time-scale in which to secure his legacy. Inevitably, then, the next three years or so are critical to the way his political career will be remembered; he will be looking to make his mark on the history books – and on the country too – so he’s unlikely to be over-concerned with the housing question.

Cameron has set his sights on reforming Britain’s relationship with Europe; it’s a choice he may yet live to regret. The issue has long been a thorny one and it has bloodied the party before, just ask John Major. One wrong move and the Prime Minister may find his quest for a favourable legacy shredded by internal party strife – along with other elements of his legislative ambitions, lost in the fray as collateral damage.

Away from the European question, with a slender majority to contend with, this may not be the easiest Parliament for Cameron to steer. Rowdy backbenchers and a fractious right wing may become a particularly irksome source of opposition; a distraction at the very least. Quite what this will entail for his Government’s legislative programme is anybody’s guess right now. We’re still in that ‘pause for breath’ phase, as everyone takes stock, assesses their position, and braces for the resumption of the game.

In that regard, we find ourselves accommodating to the new normal, where the present is but an echo of the past, and where those who once urgently harangued the politicians to take the housing crisis seriously now pledge their vows of fealty to this unexpected Government. At least that’s how it feels.

“As always CIH now stands ready to work with the new government to use the knowledge and experience of housing professionals to inform the detail of policy design and implementation, so that the new housing policy framework moves us closer to, not further away from, creating a housing system that works for everyone,” said Gavin Smart, deputy chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH).

David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation (NHF) said: “We will offer the new government all the support we can in helping them to end the housing crisis... We look forward to working with the new government and the new ministerial team constructively and in partnership to support the task ahead.”

Given their day jobs, this is exactly the kind of thing both men need to be seen to be saying, whatever their private thoughts; it’s all part of the time-honoured ritual of regime changeover, but for all that, to the outsider listening in such words possess an inescapable air of supplication about them.

The trouble is they are pledging to work with a Government that has amply demonstrated it is inimical to housing associations’ business interests – not to mention their oft-quoted social purpose. It’s a reasonable question to ask, then, and one the wider housing world must ask itself in the coming weeks and months: is it really possible to seek accommodation with a Government patently indifferent to its circumstances and requirements? For some, this may smack more of surrender than standing firm.

In fairness, that’s reading a lot into a couple of routine responses, and both Smart and Orr said more in their initial reaction to the election result. They reiterated the case for action to resolve the housing crisis, they expressed opposition to proposed Tory policies – since confirmed in the Queen’s Speech – and they pushed the case for change. But the statements felt listless, it must be said, as if the spokespersons are tired of covering the same old ground, as well they might.

The arguments regarding the housing crisis are now more than well-rehearsed; they feel dispirited by endless repetition. To some extent, it feels as if the sector is going through the motions, as it faces up to the prospect of five more years (at least) of repeating itself to politicians who present a deaf ear to the arguments while paying lip service to the housing crisis.

Actually, accusing the Government of ignoring the housing crisis is unfair. In a sense, the Queen’s Speech has provided the answer that the Homes for Britain campaign asked for: that government present a plan to take on the housing crisis within the first year of it coming into office. Well, the first full-blooded Tory legislative package since 1996 has done just that – with, of course, a huge focus on home ownership.

Cameron’s Government is offering over a million homes for sale at a massive knockdown price in an effort to boost the levels of home ownership. Okay, so that’s over a million homes that already exist and are currently owned by housing associations, but that’s Right-to-Buy for you. Meanwhile, the Housing Bill is also offering to build new homes, such as the cut-price so-called Starter Homes for a section of hard-pressed first-time buyers, and an intent to carry through reforms to help people build their own homes.

It’s a plan, of sorts; just not necessarily a very good one. Voices in the housing sector have decried the package – especially Right-to-Buy’s extension – as no solution to the housing crisis at all and likely to make it worse. Doubtless, that’s true. But in political calculus a solution only has to work for the right people. It remains to be seen if the Prime Minister’s backroom Machiavellis have got their sums right, but if he holds to his no-third-term pledge, then any fallout will be his successor’s problem.

As it is, Cameron might well ask – who’s gonna stop me? The clock is ticking, but the Prime Minister is currently in something of a grace period while opposition pulls itself together and regroups. The SNP is finding its feet in the Commons. The Labour Party, thrown into disarray, is embroiled in finding a new leader and in figuring out what it actually stands for.

The same might be said of the housing industry, as it ponders the way ahead: social purpose or commercial value; ditch the poor and the vulnerable for a ‘better class’ of customer or hold true to its principles? With all this in mind, it may seem that the likelihood of the social – or should we say the ‘affordable’ – housing industry’s representatives gaining a favourable ear in Cameron’s ‘court’ is slight – except insofar as they oil the wheels of his Government’s housing policies.

So it begs the question, and it’s one neither the CIH nor the NHF will like, but for the millions of people looking for a secure home at a price they can genuinely afford, just how relevant are either organisation likely to be five years from now, if not sooner? It’s a sobering question.

As the housing world ponders the answer to that one, it may be that Cameron’s political alchemists have miscalculated after all. Right-to-Buy is as much a threat to the assets of the commercial-in-tooth-and-claw brigade, as it is to those who are sticking to their social guns. Indeed, one might argue it’s a bigger threat to the former.

Certainly, it provides a focal point for unity of resistance. Far from neutering dissent within the housing world, Right-to-Buy has provided a galvanising stimulus. Both Smart and Orr demonstrated a resurgent vigour in their response to the confirmed policy; a chorus of voices – both from within the housing world and from walks of life beyond – have voiced opposition to the notion of extending Right-to-Buy to housing associations. It seems the policy has few friends outside of Cameron’s coterie of minions.

Suddenly, housing doesn’t seem quite so lonely and divided any more. Right-to-Buy remains a clear and present danger, but if the sector can forge the right alliances to capitalise on this near-unanimous declaration of dissent, it might finally be able to build the kind of opposition that ministers are unable to dismiss.

In dishing out a little Right-to-Buy revenge, David Cameron might well have invoked his Nemesis. We shall see. Remember to keep the dish chilled.


This article originally appeared in the June/July 2015 print edition of Housing magazine. It subsequently reappeared on the Housing Excellence website, 24 June 2015


Main photo: Arron Hoare (Crown Copyright)

Rent arrears

On the edge of a rental apocalypse?

So far, social landlords have weathered the welfare reform storm, but with its full force yet to be felt can the sector survive without leaving tenants to be blown away by the winds of change?

By Mark Cantrell

First published in the April/May 2015 edition of Housing magazine

FIRST there’s the calm, then there’s the storm, and if you’re really unlucky – it blows your house away. Actually, we’re talking about welfare reform and the impact it has on rent arrears, so it’s nothing like a storm as such; this is more like a policy neutron bomb – it blows away people but leaves the housing standing.

 Well, the nukes haven’t gone off yet, if you want to stick with the metaphor of Armageddon, but the horizon’s certainly looking cloudy if you want to run with the storm; either way, the impact of austerity and welfare reform has barely begun – and it’s bound to cause havoc with that basic business function of collecting the rent.

So far, for all the ructions over the bedroom tax and the like, the sector has fared rather better than expected. At the end of last year, Baker Tilly released the findings of a benchmarking survey with 70 housing providers. The purpose was to assess the impact of welfare reform. All told, the firm found that the impact had been significantly less than anticipated, but it warned against taking a false sense of security from its findings.

The average level of rent arrears during 2013/14 was 3.29%, slightly down on the anticipated 3.9% revealed in the survey the previous year. However, Baker Tilly said that providers predicted the rates will rise to 4.14% in 2015/16 once the wider Universal Credit takes effect.

“Our survey suggests that providers have coped very well with the removal of the spare room subsidy and the introduction of the benefit cap, but the risk from the introduction of Universal Credit hasn’t gone away,” said Gary Moreton, Baker Tilley’s head of social housing.

“While there remains some uncertainty as to when the policy will be fully implemented, evidence from the pilot areas clearly shows that tenants go into arrears when moved onto Universal Credit, so providers need to remain vigilant to this risk, and try to understand what mitigating steps they can take which are likely to be the most effective.”

As the report concludes: “The effects of direct payments on rent arrears, across the sector, is as yet unknown and if the benefit cap is reduced further, tenant incomes will become even more stretched. It is possible to liken the situation to a ‘calm before the storm’.”

The storm has already hit for some; those tenants hit in the pocket by the harsh realities of welfare reform. And it’s not simply about the impact of the bedroom tax. There’s the cap on benefits – currently set at £26,000 – and the prospect of direct payment to tenants of the housing benefit element under Universal Credit that is giving the sector’s rent collectors something of a headache. Well, don’t reach for the painkillers yet.

David Cameron has stated an intention to reduce the benefit cap to £23,000 should the Conservatives secure office following May’s election. This has set alarm bells ringing at Moat Housing, which operates across the South East. It has published a report into the likely impact of such a reduction. Its conclusion – devastating.

The Prime Minister’s proposal has severe implications for affordability in the local authority areas where it operates, Moat said – making both Affordable Rent and social rent unaffordable. In short, families on low incomes – whether on benefits, ordinary mortals’ wages, or a mix of both – will no longer be able to afford a home in the social sector.

According to the report, all three-bedroom properties where Moat operates would become “instantly unaffordable” for both Affordable and social rents under a £23,000 cap. Furthermore, two-bedroom properties would become instantly unaffordable at Affordable Rent in eight local authority areas where it operates, while they would become unaffordable in 83% of local authorities within two years. By the end of four years, they would have become unaffordable in all areas.

In terms of social rent, Moat’s report said that two-bedroom properties would become unaffordable in 80% of local authorities within four years and become universally unaffordable within six years. One-bedroom properties would remain affordable – but only in the short term.

Doesn’t bode well for rent arrears, does it?

This is speculation, of course – it all depends on the outcome of the election – but there’s nothing speculative about the impact of the Department of Work and Pensions’ (DWP) increasingly controversial regime of benefit sanctions, which were introduced under the Welfare Reform Act 2012. These are something of a wildcard, deemed as capricious in nature by critics; they can deprive tenants of income seemingly at the drop of a hat. Moreover, according to the charity Crisis, the sanctions regime operates to something of a ‘postcode lottery’.

In March this year, the charity released a report deploring the sanctions regime. This preceded a further critical report from the Work and Pensions Select Committee of MPs, which called for an independent review to investigate whether sanctions were being applied “appropriately, fairly and proportionately”.

In theory, sanctions imposed on people claiming JobSeekers Allowance or Employment Support Allowance should not affect their claims for Housing Benefit or Local Housing Allowance, but the system has been criticised for a lack of communication between JobCentres and councils that has led to some of those sanctioned losing their housing support too.

Back in January, the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) expressed its concern that sanctions were unfairly leaving PRS landlords with mounting rent arrears” because of this failure to communicate.

“The problem has, if anything, got worse despite both the Department of Work and Pensions and councils being well aware of its existence, not to mention the unnecessary rent arrears and untold misery it inflicts on tens of thousands of tenants. Landlords, already reeling from some of the worst affects of welfare reform, are also experiencing mounting rent arrears, caused by this same issue,” the organisation said.

Earlier still, in April 2014, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) released a report – ‘Cause for Concern?’ – setting out its concerns about the impact of sanctions. Based on a survey of members, 69% had seen an increase in the number of tenants sanctioned in the course of 2013. Given that 60% of housing association tenants in Scotland rely on housing benefit to pay the rent in full or in part, it is little wonder that the SFHA considered JSA sanctions a “significant risk for social landlords”.

“When Housing Benefit claims are suspended as a direct result of a sanction, tenants are being left with no income to pay rent... While hardship payments are available from DWP for struggling tenants, too often these are ‘too little too late’,” the report said. “Sanctions can trigger a ‘catastrophic effect’ on a tenant’s ability to pay priority debts, and consequently tenants, who had never previously been in arrears, are now falling into rent arrears. In extreme cases, sanctions have caused tenants to terminate their tenancy after being left with no income.”

The obvious solution, of course, is to ensure that Housing Benefit isn’t interrupted when and if a tenant is sanctioned, but there’s a fly in that ointment – the prospect of direct payment. Is it feckless to feed hungry mouths before clearing a rent account or simply human? That’s the rock and a hard place a growing number of tenants are facing; indirectly, so too are their landlords.

Even without this sanctions ‘bomb’, housing associations are under increasing pressure to square their bottom line with their social purpose; in effect to fight for a future as a social landlord. One has to wonder, as the pressure mounts, if any – how many? – might break and opt for a path of least resistance that leads to a gentrified future catering to higher-earning groups.

For now, though, the fight goes on to preserve what passes for the sector’s body and soul.

“Like all landlords, we are now deeply immersed in the process of managing, as best we can, the impact of welfare reforms including the roll out of Universal Credit. Sadly, the sector’s worse fears have materialised and tenants’ arrears are growing. Individuals who have never been in debt are now being chased for rent arrears,” said Angela Forshaw, director of landlord services at Liverpool Mutual Homes (LMH), who is also the chair of Liverpool Housing Associations Welfare Reform Group.

“We are spending a massive amount of extra time, energy and resource to understand the underlying reasons, which are often very complex and extremely personal, so we can best tailor solutions. This requires a significant amount of additional non-mainstream tenancy work by housing officers who now need a far greater range of knowledge and skills than ever before. By its very nature, this kind of personal support work is very labour intensive and can take its toll. This on top of making sure tenants are on the right benefits, maximising income, minimising outgoings and where relevant, making DHP applications on their behalf.”

Unemployment is a big factor, but – as the Joseph Rowntree Foundation recently reminded with its report into poverty and social exclusion in Scotland – work is no guaranteed route out of poverty; nor indeed liberation from a reliance on benefits to help make ends meet. Some people, as we are becoming all too painfully aware, work hard for their poverty.

None of these issues are unique, of course, which is why LMH’s Forshaw more or less speaks for social landlords nationwide, whether or not she intended to.

“This is happening across the country. And it prompts the question: can the sector sustain this approach over the long term and as more people and families move onto Universal Credit?” she added. “While our efforts to engage in positive activity like helping people to find work are playing a vital role in minimising rent arrears, ultimately the system is against us and landlords are going to be significantly affected. It is hard to appreciate the promised simplified welfare benefits system when both parties – tenant and landlord – apparently lose out.”

Sadly, if the worst-case scenario comes to pass, it’s tenants that stand to lose the most – their homes.


This article first appeared in the April/May 2015 print edition of Housing magazine. It was subsequently published on the Housing Excellence website, 29 April 2015

Cover Story: Game of Homes

Has housing already lost the election?

The 2015 general election is imminent and it will decide the fate of millions struggling to secure a decent home they can afford, but as the politicians compete for votes can our aspiration to solve the housing crisis trump their aspiration for power?

By Mark Cantrell

First published in the April/May 2015 edition of Housing magazine

ASPIRATION would be a fine thing, if it weren’t so tragic, but in a sense this is very much what the coming election is all about. The question is whose hopes and dreams will be sacrificed in the battle to seize control of Parliament – and at what cost to Britain’s social and economic fabric?

As we know, a lot of people aspire to own their home, but the homeownership dream is dying; a sizeable chunk of people aspire to find a secure, stable home in the social sector, but it’s been hacked to the bone; the private rented sector has enjoyed phenomenal growth, mopping up the refugees from these crumbling tenures, but it’s become an expensive and insecure place, built on the back of people who really – desperately – aspire to be anywhere but here.

Meanwhile, David Cameron aspires to lead the next government, a true-blue Tory administration purged of the Liberal Democrat element that helped him secure power back in 2010. Labour’s Ed Miliband, naturally, wants to give Cameron the boot and take up residence in Number 10 himself. As for the LibDems, well, presumably they aspire to avoid being cast into electoral oblivion.

And then we have the wildcards – the Green Party, the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP), Plaid Cymru, even UKIP – looking to play ‘kingmaker’, or at least matchmaker, in the formation of a new coalition government.

Never before have parties of the electoral fringes (with apologies to the SNP, which is of course a major player in Scotland) enjoyed such potential to shape the UK’s political landscape. Well, they might want to learn a lesson or two from the LibDems; the party that paved the way for the UK’s venture into the unfamiliar territory of coalition. Not least, on 8 May they might wake up to learn the risks of venturing into government partnership with parties not quite in alignment with their own claimed values and policies.

Nick Clegg puts a brave face on it these days, but the truth is his party supped of a poisoned chalice when it made the deal that led them out of the backbench wilderness and into government office. It’s certainly been historic – the first true coalition, and a stable one at that, and the first time Liberals have held offices of state since the Second World War. It seemed, at long last, that the LibDems had arrived. And they may well pay a heavy price for that fleeting period of governmental glory.

Politics, like life, is frequently unfair – as Margaret Thatcher once noted – and rightly or wrongly, Clegg and his party compadres have stirred a stew of anger over the last five years. The party bosses claim they’ve been a moderating influence on their Conservative colleagues, but many who invested their vote in 2010 have come to see the party as an enabler of right wing excess. There is a sense of betrayal, for which 7 May offers the chance of payback. Clegg looks set to endure his Portillo moment. And he may not be alone.

Elections and electorates can be fickle beasts, of course. Clegg may survive, but it is likely that the LibDems will – if not face outright oblivion – be sent packing to the backbenches from whence they came. The fate of the LibDems, however, is neither here nor there. They’ve shot their bolt. Now it’s somebody else’s turn.

Pundits have offered up 2015 as the most unpredictable general election for a generation or more. The uncertainty extends beyond the question of the likely winner – Conservative or Labour – but whether either of them will emerge victorious at all. There’s a real expectation of a hung parliament, which will unleash a scramble to cut to a deal with one or more of the minority parties in an effort to clinch the prime ministerial crown.

Britain’s political policy landscape is up for grabs in more ways than one. Little wonder, then, that the smaller players smell blood – all of a sudden they matter a great deal. Potentially, they provide the means to bolster the status quo, or provide leverage to radically shift the nation’s future.

Either way, regardless of the manifesto commitments the respective parties publish, any negotiations to secure a coalition government will mean that we the electorate can’t be entirely sure what it is we’re voting for. Remember those disgruntled LibDem voters? Of course, there’s also a chance that the electorate could play the joker in the pack and give either Labour or Tory factions a workable majority. Stranger things have happened.

But these aren’t the only factions in play this coming election. Housing has emerged as a major issue, acknowledged by the political parties to varying degrees; millions of people affected by the housing crisis will be looking to them for redress. Indeed, a number of campaigns and civil society organisations are looking to mobilise this constituency – Homes for Britain, SHOUT, Generation Rent, and others – in an effort to win the election for housing.

There’s a palpable sense that this is a make-or-break election for the housing world – especially the social variety. Homes for Britain is demanding that the next government devise a plan to resolve the housing crisis within a generation – and publish its plan in the first year of the next Parliament – while SHOUT calls for at least 100,000 new social housing a year. The generally accepted figure for the number of homes we need to build a year is 240,000, covering all tenures, so how have the political players answered this call thus far?

Election manifestos are yet to be published (at the time of writing, Parliament has only just been dissolved), but it’s not as if the political parties haven’t been dropping less-than-subtle hints.

On the whole, the offerings are somewhat underwhelming, perhaps even a source of foreboding for those at the sharp end of the housing crisis. David Cameron set out a private market vision during a speech in Colchester, heavily focused on subsidising home ownership, a degree of regulation for private renting, planning reform, and a package more or less familiar from the last five years. For frustrated first-time buyers he dangled the small carrot of 200,000 cut-price so-called Starter Homes. It’s hardly an all out assault on the housing crisis.

Social housing evidently barely figures in Conservative thinking. Although, the party has raised the prospect of a ‘right to move’ for tenants and reiterated its commitment to Right-to-Buy. Indeed, Cameron has raised the possibility of extending the policy to housing associations. Given the pressure the National Housing Federation and its member landlords have applied in pursuit of a solution to the crisis, it is difficult not to interpret Cameron’s proposal as a deliberate slap in the face, not to mention a piece of vote-catching populism.

Labour, meanwhile, is relying heavily on the Lyons Review to provide its housing offer. Chief among this is the target to build 200,000 new homes a year by 2020. All told, it’s a rather more mixed tenure offer than the Tories are making, with measures to support first-time buyers, give councils greater scope to build homes, and introduce measures to increase competition in the housebuilding market.

Pertinently, for those eager to see a concerted effort to tackle the housing crisis, Labour has said it will make it a national priority. In office, if it wins, it will set up a new cross-government taskforce to drive a co-ordinated approach to increasing the supply of housing.

All told, Labour has claimed it will boost the supply of affordable housing. Great stuff, no doubt, but as we are learning to our cost, ‘affordable’ isn’t always so.

The Greens proved far less coy on the matter of affordability; the party has declared an intention to build social housing. Yes, that’s right – full-blown social housing and 500,000 of them by 2020. That’s a clear commitment, lifted right out of SHOUT’s manifesto, but if it wants to act on this promise it’ll need to play some serious hardball around the negotiating table in the event of a hung parliament, if it secures a presence that merits it being a coalition power-broker, of course.

There’s a lot to mull over; far more than can be condensed into these pages, but from the perspective of the housing world, it’s all about finding a way to meld the aspiration for a decent home – whatever the tenure – with the aspiration for political office of those standing for election. So, there’s a lot riding on the outcome.

Predictions are dangerous in any election, all the more so in this uncertain contest. But on past record, and the offerings currently laid before us, it seems safe to say that whoever wins the election the biggest loser looks set to be social housing – and with it, the scope for a genuine, sustainable solution to the housing crisis.

Right now, the politicians want our votes; that offers a chance, however slim, to bend them to our will. But they are a notoriously slippery breed when it comes to commitments. It’s when we, the electorate, have served our purpose that the real fight to force a solution to the housing crisis begins. Strangely, we may actually need another hung parliament to break the deadlock between those two old, entrenched power-blocs that are Conservative and Labour. A new coalition might be the answer to our prayers – or our waking nightmare.

Until then, all we can do is hold to our aspiration. Vote wisely. And good luck.


This article first appeared as the cover story for the April/May 2015 print edition of Housing magazine. It subsequently appeared on the Housing Excellence website, 27 April 2015

Interview: Tom Murtha, social housing campaigner

Meet the "conscience of housing"

Tom Murtha has been dubbed the “conscience of housing”, now the retired chief executive turned social housing agitator tells Mark Cantrell why the tenure matters and why its stewards must relearn a fighting spirit

First publishing in the April/May 2015 edition of Housing magazine

SOMETIMES, it’s personal; professionalism needs that spark to light the fire in its belly it needs to make a difference. Enter Tom Murtha. Since he retired as chief executive of Midland Heart three years ago, he’s been striking flint with his outspoken efforts to re-ignite the social housing world’s fighting spirit.

“A lot of people think that because I’ve become a little bit more outspoken in the last couple of years there’s been a change in my outlook, but the reality is, if anyone knows my history – and I celebrate 40 years in housing next year – I’ve always had a reputation for being outspoken,” he said. “I guess I can speak out a little bit more now I’m no longer a chief executive but I hope I did speak out when I was [one]. I was one of the few to challenge Grant Shapps when he started to talk about ‘lazy social housing’ and he demonised the sector.

“I don’t see things from an operational point of view anymore: I see things from a policy point of view, and reflect right back to the beginning of my career when I was always opposed to inequality, when I was always opposed to people being oppressed, I was always opposed to people being poor, and I was always opposed to racism. On all those issues, I’ve been incredibly constant throughout my career.”

Murtha is one of the founding members of the campaign, Social Housing Under Threat (SHOUT), which is dedicated to challenging the ‘lazy consensus’ that the tenure has had its day. When he’s not making a nuisance of himself in the pursuit of its cause, he serves as chair of HACT, as well as homelessness charity Emmaus, and he’s on the board of Plus Dane – “it keeps me real” he said.

Social housing is a “force for good” as far as Murtha is concerned. “I come from the generation immediately after the war where social housing provided a home for millions and millions of people. Compare that to before the war, when people were living in poverty and very poor housing, I think it was an amazing transformation – and we should continue to celebrate that. Social housing has continued to do that over a long period of time,” he said.

“Clearly the environment has changed, society has changed, financial approaches to what we do have changed, but at its best social housing still produces the best quality, the best managed property at the best price in the country. We lose that at our peril. It provides a safety net, but it also provides a springboard: a home and stability provides everything else we need in life to move on.

“I recognise there have been difficulties, I recognise there has been talk of residualisation, but the reality is the majority of people living in social housing are ordinary people just like you and me who want to live an ordinary life. They want the opportunities that we have had, and sometimes don’t have those opportunities and maybe need a bit more support. I don’t actually sign up to the proposition that social housing has failed.”

Perhaps it’s more a case that the tenure has been failed by its stewards; a failing that has left it wide open to external attack.

“I don’t think as a sector we’ve sold our product well enough. I hate to use the word product because it puts it in a different dimension, but I think we have allowed others to talk the product down,” Murtha said. “Some of our leaders have not spoken up for the product strongly enough, and I guess that’s why I’ve been speaking up for it in the last two or three years. I got quite angry that we seem to be losing something that I think is very precious.”

He cites Right-to-Buy, which has taken a heavy toll on stocks of council housing – a policy David Cameron recently suggested would be extended to housing associations if his party won the election – then there’s the conversion to “so-called” Affordable Rent, the collapse in investment to build new social stock, and so does it continue to dwindle. Murtha is clearly outraged by this.

“[Social housing is] something that we should be protecting and building and growing – and be very proud of,” he added. “Not to be naive, not to look at the world through rose-coloured spectacles, but actually proud of a product that millions of people live in and millions of people enjoy. What we provide is something that is extremely high quality, well-managed, and at a really good price. We’re crazy if we don’t continue to promote that.”

So, how did the social sector lose its campaigning edge? “It’s become too professional, I don’t know,” he laughed. Then added: “I talk a lot about values. I talk about passion. I talk about the need occasionally to get angry. I believe that we should continue to innovate as a sector. But I also believe that there was a spirit in the sector, which the people who founded housing associations had, about social justice and helping those in greatest need, and which delivered some of the greatest developments we as a sector have.

“That is now under attack – and I worry that as a sector we have not resisted it enough. I think we have lost some of that campaigning and lobbying spirit as we’ve become more professional and, in inverted commas, more commercial. We’ve lost 120,000 social homes in the last three years: that’s the equivalent of a city the size of Leicester – and we’ve had no outcry about it.”

He added: “It’s only when social housing is no longer there that people will realise how important it is. The starting point of a successful society and a flourishing economy is a decent home, and for millions of people social housing is still their only hope of a decent home. And we forget that. I fear that if social housing disappears more and more people will be homeless, more and more people will suffer, society will suffer, and the economy will suffer.”

For Murtha, social housing inevitably mingles the professional and the personal since it is intimately tied up with his own family history and experience. He hasn’t just forged a career in the sector; he was born and raised in social housing. And, as he has written about on his blog, it was social housing that provided his family with a stable home after a period of homelessness. Today, while he no longer resides in the tenure himself, social housing provides the homes where all of his extended family live their lives.

So he knows the value and importance of social housing from lived experience, and this undoubtedly fuels his campaigning ire. But it’s not a cause that Murtha – or his fellow SHOUTers – can secure alone. The wider sector needs to find that will to win.

“Social housing is in my blood,” he said. “I’ve worked in it for 40 years; I’ve lived in it. I believe in this sector – I just wish the sector would believe in itself more.” 


This article first appeared in the April/May 2015 print edition of Housing magazine. It was subsequently published on the Housing Excellence website, 28 April 2015

Passivhaus Living

A very model of a low-carbon habitat

The Passive House concept promises low carbon living that doesn’t cost the Earth, and the way it is gaining ground around the world demonstrates that such claims are far from being so much hot air 

By Mark Cantrell

First published in Timber in Construction magazine, Spring 2015

The Midori Haus, Santa Cruz. Image: The Passive House Institute

SINCE the first ‘prototype’ was developed in 1990, the Passive House concept of energy efficient buildings has been gaining ground across the world – literally.

There are now over 30,000 buildings that are recognised as fulfilling the required criteria, covering a million square metres of space. That may not be much in the grand scheme of the global built environment, but it represents the steady growth in the construction of certified Passive House structures.

The millionth-metre mark was achieved last year with certification of a detached house in Santa Cruz, California in the United States. The Midori Haus, as it is known, gained its certification from the Passive House Institute (PHI) in Darmstadt, Germany, in December 2014. Given the symbolic threshold this property crossed, the institute issued a special – what you might call a commemorative – certificate to recognise the achievement.

Originally built in 1922, the Midori Haus is a three-bedroom, two-bathroom single-story property. It was remodelled in 2012 to the Passive House Standard. The house retained the original foundation, floor, framing, porch, built-in furniture, as well as the interior trims and accents. Since the work was completed energy usage has been monitored, with utility bills showing that the energy consumption dropped by 80%.

California’s climate, of course, is somewhat removed from that of Central and Northern Europe, where the Passive House concept was first devised, but it is a concept that has been tailored to – and been realised in – a variety of different climates in the 25 years since the first building tested out the principles. These days, Passive House structures are to be found on almost every continent and in practically every climate zone.

Most Passive House structures – they aren’t exclusively residential properties – are located in Central Europe, and despite the quantified number of such buildings, the real number may be much higher, according to the PHI. That’s because for one thing, it exists to widely disseminate its research into the concept and methodologies for putting it in practice, for another certification is voluntary. Consequently, the existence of Passive House buildings may be far more widespread than even its progenitors realise.

“In principle, anyone can build a passive house,” said Zeno Bastian, the PHI’s head of building certification. “What matters is compliance with the clearly defined criteria for energy consumption. How this is achieved depends on climate. In Central Europe the most essential measures include thermal bridge free construction, an airtight building envelope, a ventilation system with heat recovery, triple-glazed windows, and excellent thermal insulation.

“The primary purpose of certification is quality assurance. With this internationally recognised seal, building owners are safe in the knowledge that the desired savings for heating costs and added benefits of a Passive House will actually be realised.”

Dr Wolfgang Feist. Image: The Passive House Institute

The Passive House concept – or ‘passivhaus’ to give its European flavour – was devised by Professors Bo Adamson of Sweden and Dr Wolfgang Feist of Germany, with the ‘prototype’ constructed in Darmstadt. The Kranichstein Passive House, as it is known, was Europe’s first multi-family house to achieve a documented heating energy consumption below 12kWh/(m2a).

Since then, the concept has taken root with Passive House structures constructed in every European country, with Australia, China, Japan, Canada, the USA, and South America joining in to put the concept through its paces. Apparently, there’s even a research station in Antarctica built to the Passive House standard, according to the PHI.

These days, when branding is King – or at least courtier – it is important to note that Passive House is not a brand, nor is it linked to any specific type of construction; both are important points in maintaining the flexibility adaptability of the principles, as much as its ‘open source’ nature, whereby anybody can access the research of the PHI and its sister bodies around the world, and work on its own enhancements to the concept.

That doubtless helps to explain its growing global appeal and the diversity of projects to which it has been applied. To date, according to the PHI, the largest building built to the Passive House standard is an office tower in Vienna, Austria. The RHW.2 building has a useable area of almost 21,000 square metres. Conversely, the smallest certified Passive House is a building near Rennes, France, which has a floor area of just 11 square metres.

Then there’s Heidelberg’s Bahnstadt quarter, which is billed as the world’s largest Passive House district. At the International Passive House Conference last year, it scooped the 2014 Passive House Award for its “exemplary nature”. An award plaque now adorns the district’s Schetzinger Terrasse kindergarten where passers-by can see this reminder of the area’s international recognition.

“The award displays strikingly the pioneering spirit demonstrated by the world’s largest Passive House neighbourhood,” said Heidelberg’s mayor, Dr Eckart Würzner during the plaque’s official unveiling last year. “The Bahnstadt district is gaining ever more attention internationally and is visibly asserting itself as one of the most innovative urban development projects of our time. Our newest city district shows what is possible when existing technical opportunities are intelligently employed and is a source of pride.”

The first Passivhaus at Darmstadt. Image: The Passive House Institute

According to Dr Feist, who is director of the PHI in Germany, the district more or less unveils a view of future urban living. “High energy performance construction is establishing itself in an increasing number of countries,” he said. “An entire city district built to the Passive House Standard, however, is until now unique. In this way, the city of Heidelberg is delivering a blueprint for the future. The European Buildings directive dictates that so-called Nearly Zero Energy Buildings are to become the norm by 2021. With the Passive House Standard, Bahnstadt is already fulfilling these requirements.”

Here in the UK, the Passive House approach is also finding converts, although it’s fair to say the uptake has lagged somewhat behind the Continent, given the home-grown ecotown concept and then subsequently the Code for Sustainable Homes that sought to provide a framework for the Government’s zero-carbon ambitions [since original publication of this article, the Coalition Government scrapped the Code]. Nonetheless, the UK has joined the global Passive House club, as it were.

Hastoe Housing, for instance, created its first Passive House development in Wimbish. In October last year the organisation released the findings of a two-year evaluation of the performance of the 14 “exemplar” homes. The assessment, supported by the University of East Anglia and the Technology Strategy Board, gave a welcome verdict for Hastoe – that the homes had performed as designed and delivered vastly lower heating bills for the residents.

Hastoe's passive houses in Wimbish, UK

“Given that this was the first Passivhaus development by Hastoe, the first Passivhaus design by the architect, and the first Passivhaus construction project by the contractor, in essence making it an experimental project for all three, these findings are remarkable and demonstrate that Passivhaus provides a viable and successful route to low-energy living,” the evaluation report noted.

Wimbish is a rural development, but Octavia Housing has created an example of a Passive House scheme in an urban setting with Sulgrave Gardens in Brook Green, Shepherds Bush, London. The30-home mixed-tenure scheme was intended to show that the concept is indeed a viable proposition in higher density in UK towns and cities.

“As in many urban dwellings, Octavia and our team of partners were faced with constraints that exist as part of the usual planning and local contextual considerations, and as an added complication the site is sandwiched between two conservation areas. This coupled with the desire to build a mixed-tenure scheme of such a scale as well as being guided by the Passivehaus principles, required new dimensions of innovation,” the organisation said.

Low carbon living is essential to help turn the tide of climate change, and that’s precisely why Passive House is gaining ground, but there’s another important reason too – and that’s in the wallets of the occupants.

Perhaps it’s fitting, then, to leave the last word on this to the concept’s founder, Dr Feist: “Passive House components allow building owners to save hard cash.”

Anatomy of low-carbon living

• In Passive Houses savings of up to 90% can be achieved on the energy expenditure required for space heating or cooling compared with “typical building stock” and over 75% compared to average newbuilds. They use less than 1.5 litres of oil or 1.5m3 of gas to heat one square meter of living space for a year, said to be substantially less than common ‘low energy’ buildings
• Passive Houses use the sun, internal heat sources and heat recovery in such a way that conventional heating systems unnecessary, even during the coldest of winters. During warmer months, they make use of passive cooling techniques such as strategic shading to keep them comfortably cool
• Internal surface temperatures vary little from indoor air temperatures, even in the face of extreme outdoor temperatures. Special windows and a building envelope consisting of a highly insulated roof and floor slab, as well as highly insulated exterior walls keep the desired warmth in the house, or undesirable heat out
• A ventilation system discretely supplies constant fresh air, maintaining air quality without unpleasant draughts. A highly efficient heat recovery unit allows for heat in the exhaust air to be reclaimed and re-used

(Source: Passive House Institute, Darmstadt, Germany)

 This article first appeared in the Spring print edition of Timber In Construction magazine (circa March 2015). It was subsequently republished on the Timber In Construction website, 28 April 2015