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Even in more affluent areas, the lack of new homes being built is disturbing, says Alan Goodrum I reviewed our performance figures at the end of the year. We still have a performance management system. Call me old fashioned, but I do like to see those amber lights turn to green on screen. What attracted my attention was the housing figures. Of course, we don't have housing targets any more, although actually, we do if I follow correctly the latest legal judgement, and people still need somewhere to live. Alan Goodrum is chief executive of Chiltern DC I reviewed our performance figures at the end of the year. We still have a performance management system. Call me old fashioned, but I do like to see those amber lights turn to green on screen. What attracted my attention was the housing figures. Of course, we don't have housing targets any more, although actually, we do if I follow correctly the latest legal judgement, and people still need somewhere to live. So, what did our figures reveal? First, the softer stuff... homelessness prevention – up a creditable 57%; no bed and breakfast placements; properties with a rent deposit-guarantee scheme increasing nicely; empty properties returned to use – all going well... But what shook me with a red splodge was the number of newly-built affordable homes completed. Zero in quarter two, the same figure for quarter three, and no more in 2010/2011. Even in the private market, where we are granting consents, fewer are being implemented, with most of the completions being windfalls rather than established sites. We are on target with consents, but way down on completions. And since affordable housing is linked to 33% of private sector completions on all but the smallest sites, the private sector decline drives the public sector to zero. Our situation is not really a mirror of what I would expect nationally, in that development activity here will hold up, when areas with more vulnerable economies will suffer to a greater extent. So, if we are feeling the draught, the real housing economy in the rest of the UK could be a very cold place, indeed. In my view, the next crisis is the housing crisis. Local authorities can do their bit, and mitigate the worst effects of the recession. But what they cannot do is create confidence in the national economy, or build the Big Society on their own, unless finance capital is available in the system. If we have a private sector-driven supply side for public housing, then the private sector has to be encouraged to deliver. The new homes bonus is a welcome step in encouraging local councils to issue consents and facilitate development, but it is the private sector which will deliver the new homes and, without some easing of the financial markets, the main root of the problem will not be tackled. New homes are not locked up in local authority filing cabinets. They are being lost in an incomprehensible and apparently-intractable financial system. The paradox is that the financial system is, in large part, owned by the public sector.Those softer mechanisms to bring homes back into use and make the private rental market accessible to those individuals who would have been dependent on the social rental sector will remain important. The Government is reforming the housing benefits system – a series of largely welcome changes. But, it is a truism to say they all depend on the cooperation of the private landlord. Will he or she feel sufficiently incentivised to bring properties forward to those in need, often at reduced rents, or will they follow their instincts of going for ‘safer' tenants who can pay closer to the market rent? We will be watching our performance indicators closely, and doing as much as possible to encourage our landlords, but the Government will need to be wary of the law of the unintended consequences, which could choke off some of the supply from private landlords just as the ability to build new homes hits rock bottom. A case for some joined up thinking.

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WHITEHALL

We need a joined-up approach to housing

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