The Government's new housing targets ‘are a better balance across the country' with ‘a conceptual possibility' they can be met, Birmingham City Council's housing chief has said.
Speaking at a panel session on building partnerships alongside EQUANS at The MJ Future Forum Midlands, strategic director of city housing Paul Langford said councils had been provided with ‘a reset around targets for delivering new housing, and of course there are some winners and losers in that'.
He added: ‘Cities like Birmingham have seen a reduction in their overall anticipated output for housing. On a more sophisticated level, within that target we're seeing more of a focus on the genuinely affordable end. For a local authority that has over 6,000 units of temporary accommodation that's a welcome point for us.'
‘It's not just ourselves, it's other big registered providers. Everyone is making sure their own stock is in the right condition and compliant. We don't have the capacity necessarily to build out in the same way. It's about partnership and making sure our partners have that ability to be able to respond.'
He said he could point to several sites in Birmingham that have come forward over the last two to three years, increasing the city's output of affordable housing. He added: ‘If I look back at 2019 and 2020 and at the amount of affordable housing we were doing as a city, it's embarrassing actually. But we're in a very different space now.'
The council was ‘obviously very much wedded to the combined authority and the more strategic approach, aligning all our funding, and hopefully seeing better outputs for the West Midlands', he added.
Multi-technical services company EQUANS' contract with the council covers repairs, maintenance and refurbishment for a large proportion of the local authority's housing stock, as well as work to improve its thermal efficiency and carbon footprint.
Speaking about the partnership model, managing director - places and communities central region for EQUANS Jake Fellows said: ‘People will always obsess about land and availability, land banking, planning and sites, and of course they are key issues.
‘What I would say, and there's a parallel here around decarbonisation, in that there are some big ambitions the Government has set. They are right on it, because housing influences economic and health outcomes and the life prospects of people, particularly young people. The endeavour is good.'
He added: ‘I think the challenge, and this goes back to the point of partnership, is if local authorities have a moral where it's policy first, then funding, then design a scheme, then go to procurement, the time just stretches out.'
Fellows concluded: ‘For me, working closely with the private sector [is crucial], not to unduly influence your decision making, but working early enough with the private sector so that it is ready to help you with your challenges, whether that's housebuilding, decarbonisation or refurbishment and maintenance. Because if you do it in a very consecutive way ultimately the outcome is very much slower.'
