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Making better use of existing housing stock
A roundtable event with the Royal Institute of British Architects
At Family Building Society, housing policy is a topic close to our hearts.
In an effort to tackle the housing crisis, the Government’s target to build 1.5million new houses during it’s five year term is welcomed. But as well as building new homes, we, alongside many others in the sector, believe effort should also be on repurposing existing buildings, like empty offices and shops, or developing brownfield sites.
Mark Bogard, CEO, attended a roundtable ‘How to find more homes without building anew’ held by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Led by Eleanor Young, editor of the RIBA Journal, he participated in a discussion with designers, planners and other housing experts.
There are a lot of different initiatives, but until departments, be they government departments or in councils, join up, they're just pulling in completely different directions at the same time. Someone needs to have an overarching vision for planning and delivery (Mark Bogard).
The key themes to emerge from the discussion included:
- Make it easier to downsize
- Create new housing opportunities in the original new towns
- Repurpose existing buildings as homes.
Architects can help ensure that the right homes are in the right places by talking clearly about cost – and when they put forward different options for schemes that cost different amounts of money, explaining what those differences are in words which make sense to the local authority or to the economist or funder (Christine Whitehead, London School of Economics).
Planning needs to be more visual and architects need to be more place-based. It's important for designers to do work on the wider geographies, beyond the site, and work with other professions, because we do know that the place, as well as good buildings, produces value (Tony Crook, University of Sheffield).
We previously commissioned the London School of Economics to work on a set of independent reports exploring the contradictions and perverse incentives inherent in the current policy framework, putting forward a roadmap for a more coherent, strategic approach. You can view the reports here.