The Role of International Evidence in Housing Policy
Introduction:
To aid the Department’s evidence-based consideration of alternative policy options to accelerate housebuilding, the PAC recommended that the Department should review international evidence and report to Parliament on the lessons to be learned from the housing policy and institutional landscape of other countries with higher rates of housebuilding than England. The recommendation particularly focused on innovative methods of accelerating construction and improving affordability.
This report provides an overview of how the Department uses international evidence when developing and reviewing housing policies. It includes two case studies that articulate the types of lessons learned from reviewing international policy making:
the Modern Methods of Construction policy, which promotes innovative techniques used across the globe to speed up the building of new, more affordable homes
the ‘Housing First’ framework for tackling homelessness, which drew inspiration from countries around the world including Finland and the United States.
Opportunities and Challenges of using International Evidence:
Housing markets are complex, and slight variations in the economy, the social or political structure, cultural norms or even the established planning regime shape and create unique challenges and change the shape of the market. Policies that have been successfully pursued abroad may be politically, socially or economically unfeasible, ineffective or even undesirable in England – and may even have damaging unintentional consequences. This does not mean however, that International Evidence is not used as a vital tool in policy making. It means that it is essential to understand housing markets in context when designing and developing housing policy.
The nature of the existing housing policy and its challenges:
The vast difference in tenure distribution across the OECD effectively illustrates the challenges we face when trying to draw conclusions from international evidence. The UK has a very mixed spread of tenure compared to other countries: with a comparatively large social/affordable rented sector, a relatively small (but fast growing) Private Rental Sector (PRS) and a diverse home-ownership market. Many Eastern European countries such as Lithuania have extremely high levels of outright home-ownership.
Economic and demographic trends:
A country’s economy, by affecting (for example) the feasibility of housing policy implementation and the viability of increased housebuilding, can significantly affect the magnitude and constitution of housing supply. Equally: population density, existing and projected age, and income and social distribution can significantly affect the magnitude and constitution of housing demand.
What is MMC?
There is no single type of MMC – rather a spectrum of different technologies used to manufacture houses, in part or fully, offsite and assembled onsite. Techniques range from components (e.g. the roof) being factory made, but the house is built in a traditional way, through to panelized systems such as timber frame or volumetric/modular where even fixtures and fittings have been installed at the factory.
Affordable Housing:
Affordable housing providers have begun to invest in MMC and factories to deliver homes. For example, Accord group in the West Midlands have been producing homes offsite through their offsite delivery arm since 2011, with a new partnership to deliver pilot projects across their region with other housing associations. Swan Housing Association in Essex, in partnership with its development company NU living, has a secured development pipeline to deliver over 3,500 new homes across East London and the South East.
Conclusion:
Internationally and in the UK developers using MMC are showing what the future of house building could look like, building high quality homes at a much faster pace while embracing the latest technology. New technology and innovation has improved productivity, quality and choice in a range of sectors in the UK and we want to see the same happen in housing.