Our housing system needs to find flexibility in how we use undeveloped brownfield land
The housing crisis is an oft used term to describe a wide array of problems facing Britons. There’s cladding problems, safety problems, access problems and affordability. But the common denominator is the lack of alternative housing stock. For those struggling to access social housing lists, those in need of emergency accommodation, or even students in need of space that doesn’t necessarily conform with a standards 12 month lease, there is very little flexibility in the British property market.
We’ve heard the numbers before but they are worth repeating: 25 per cent of the population spend more than 40 per cent of their disposable income on private rents, the median house price per earning ratio in London is now 12.43, almost double that of Manchester (6.51) and Birmingham (6.37). Low to middle income earners in London face rents almost 700 per cent higher than those in the UK’s other largest cities.
The levelling up agenda has been loosely tied into housing, but it is largely a policy-by-geography plan,which neglects the vast gulf in affordability in the capital. At the same time, there is a vast amount of derelict brownfield land ripe for regeneration. This is valuable space, but under the current rigid planning system it could spend many years stuck in a lengthy development pathway or altogether unviable as funding for land release is redirected. Meanwhile use, a form of temporary urbanism, has the potential to use this land while the process of permanent redevelopment is completed. It can deliver residential solutions to those ineligible to receive social housing and priced out of the private rented sector, before returning the site for future permanent development.
This is land not reaching its full potential, brownfield or long-term regeneration land that can be rapidly brought into play. A permanent housing development on a major regeneration site might take fifteen to twenty years to complete, but the housing crisis is happening now. Relocatable units allow us, through a pipeline of brownfield sites, to reactivate land across London in a way that delivers housing capacity quickly and effectively. Even if Boris Johnson did put forward a plan for a massive boom in building, it would take years to bear fruit.
The temporary repurposing of buildings or brownfield sites has been trialled successfully across the UK for micro-retail and cultural purposes. Meanwhile housing can be a credible solution to plugging gaps in London’s housing affordability, and saving local authorities money on housing support payments in the medium-term. Using relocatable factory-built modular housing, made up of individual dismountable and remountable units, much-needed homes can be delivered temporarily on a brownfield site.
A similar policy has had success in the Netherlands; “flexwonen” or flexible living on vacant land has become a popular tool for local authorities to tackle changing housing needs – be that students, those seeking emergency accommodation, or single people priced out of expensive urban centres. The relocatable nature of meanwhile housing allows affordable capacity to be allocated in the areas where those on lower incomes or key workers are most in demand. Despite the rise in high quality, British-engineered factory built housing, the UK has been behind the curve in accepting meanwhile use for residential purposes.
Meanwhile housing offers flexibility to unlock unused land and plug an ever-growing gap.