Theresa May recently delivered one of her final talks at the Homes Conference, Manchester. Alongside Brexit, the housing crisis in the UK has been top of the agenda during her time at Number 10.
May stated that affordable housing should be “Bigger, better and more beautiful”. Discussing the need for them to be spacious and aesthetically pleasing as well as practical.
Are affordable housing schemes right?
Interestingly, in the talk directly before the Prime Ministers’, speakers Lord Richard Best, chair of the Affordable Housing Association, Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, Campbell Rob, chief executive of both the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust, Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol, and Helen Evans, chief executive of Network Homes, discussed what ‘affordability means and how do we achieve it’.
Affordable housing based on market value instead of the amount of income
One notion that Lord Richard Best put forward was that the definition of “affordable housing has to change. It shouldn’t be based on market value, but instead based on amount of income.”
This would make more sense and would certainly mean that housing would be more attainable. However, quite how it would be measured and calculated would need some serious thought.
Either way, it is certainly something to consider, and as with all housing matters, MovingSoon will be watching closely to see for any changes.
