You can’t fix homelessness without building homes
Housing First pilot schemes across Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham have proven to work, taking 1,000 people off the streets. Now the government must roll it out nationwide, says Steve Morgan
As far as housing is concerned, I didn’t have the easiest start in life. Growing up I lived in nine different houses before the age of 14, three of which had no indoor toilet, and six of which had no central heating – so I know firsthand about sub-standard housing. Without a home, nothing else in life works, it affects your health, your relationships, and your ability to find or keep a job.
When I started building houses at Redrow, I think it is perhaps because of my background that I always wanted to give our customers the best possible home for the price. Every set of keys we handed over gave a family more than bricks and mortar; our homes offered good design, warmth and security for their children. I have been building houses for well over 40 years, around 120,000 of them, providing homes for more than 330,000 people – something I am extremely proud of.
Homelessness, at the scale we have in the UK, is a national disgrace. There are many reasons for a person to become homeless but, fundamentally the biggest reason it is that there are not enough homes for the people who need them. If we, as a nation, had built the number of homes we should have done over the last 30 years, the UK would be a much better place today.
There are many reasons for a person to become homeless but, fundamentally the biggest reason it is that there are not enough homes for the people who need them
Wanting to provide a roof over the heads of homeless people is a natural extension and a key priority for The Steve Morgan Foundation.
That’s why we’ve partnered with the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) to outline a plan for how the government can end the most challenging forms of homelessness in England. Together we have developed a blueprint for rolling out Housing First, a method of tackling homelessness that’s been incubated in my home city of Liverpool and is a proven way of getting people off the streets for good.
Housing First begins with a simple but powerful principle: a permanent home.
Solid foundations
From that solid foundation, people can receive the tailored, wraparound support they need to address the deep-rooted barriers in their lives. It’s an approach rooted in common sense, recognising that no one can rebuild while trapped in an endless cycle of sleeping rough, emergency accommodation, and crisis services.
Housing First works. Across the three pilots in Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham more than 1,000 people have been taken out of homelessness and into long-term housing.
We want ministers to roll this out across the rest of England – ending homelessness for thousands more people by 2029. This would represent a huge step forward, the change this government has promised. And we believe it can be done without a single penny of extra taxpayers’ money, by scrapping costly relocation expenses for civil servants and redirecting just a slice of the existing homelessness budget.
But to end homelessness for good, we need to confront the deeper drivers of our national housing crisis. We need to get Britain building. Although the government has taken welcome steps to reform the planning system, it has inherited the consequences of half a century of under delivery. It must now go further and faster.
I’ve seen countless examples of planning delays, objections and complaints which have led to the loss of thousands of potential homes. There has been a price to pay for deteriorating planning and NIMBYism – that price is social degradation and homelessness.
The CSJ and I have laid out a blueprint for getting 5,600 of the most vulnerable homeless people off the streets by the end of this parliament. To make this ambition a reality, the government needs to live up to its promises on housebuilding and reform the planning system for good. Because you can’t fix homelessness without building houses. For a generation, politicians have failed to act. This government has the opportunity to set things right.
Steve Morgan CBE is chairman of the Steve Morgan Foundation and founder and former chairman of housebuilder, Redrow