Assessing alternatives for new homes

INTRODUCTION There is a clear need for diverse, high quality housing that is not being met, and is not likely to be met through established methods. In Wales, we are building approximately half the new homes that are needed. Changing demographics mean that people need different forms of housing, in different locations. Much of the housing that is currently being built may not serve us well in the future. Many new homes are inflexible, fail to meet current standards as a result of the ‘performance gap’, or generate secondary problems, such as increased dependence on cars. The resulting housing crisis is well documented, as are the key underlying factors that limit the supply of new homes: scarcity of land allocated for housing, the elevated land costs that result, and the high cost of building new homes to current and emerging standards using established methods. In much of Wales, the efforts of a relatively small number of national housebuilders to build new homes are further hampered by depressed forsale prices. In comparison, relatively little is known about the range of alternative approaches to house-building that exist in the UK, some established and others that are emerging. Some of these approaches relate to construction techniques, others to delivery pathways. Each approach has particular benefits and limitations. The More | Better report is the product of an evaluation of alternative approaches to housing delivery, conducted during 2016 and funded by Welsh Government’s Homes and Places Division to inform decision-making by commissioners of housing in Wales. It provides 13 themed essays from expert contributors, coupled with ‘best practice’ case studies that analyse the potential of alternative approaches to achieve higher standards. The report concludes that there is no single silver bullet to ‘solve’ the housing crisis, but a combination of innovative delivery pathways and construction techniques could significantly increase our national capacity to build more homes, better.