New plans for NHS homes

MATILDA BATTERSBY reports on various initiatives to increase the supply of homes for NHS staff.

Solving the housing crisis for Key Workers will mean coming up with radical ideas.

The NHS Homes Alliance, a group of representatives from public and private sector organisations including NHS Trusts, pension funds, financial, legal and housing experts, recently recommended in its White Paper, NHS that the NHS could use land it owns to deliver 26,000 much-needed Key Worker homes.

The report builds on recommendations made by a 2017 review of NHS property and estates by Sir Robert Naylor that advocated disposing of NHS land.

Instead, the NHS Home Alliance makes a case for the land to be kept and leased out to secure affordable rents for workers.

The Alliance recommends that NHS Trusts should retain ownership of their brownfield sites, many of which are underused car parks, and use a mixture of government support and pension investment to build homes for NHS workers which would be available for rent at rates that reflect healthcare salaries.

Staffing is a huge issue for the NHS, with Trusts currently reporting a shortfall of more than 154,000 staff and estimates that the shortfall could rise to 570,000 by 2036 .

A majority (68%) of NHS staff surveyed by the NHS Homes Alliance said that lack of affordable housing would be a key driver in deciding to leave their current employment within the next two years.

“Good-quality homes, close to work, in attractive, sustainable communities should not be a pipe dream for health and social care workers,” writes Sarah Hordern, non-executive director at Oxford University Hospitals NHS, and author of the NHS Home Alliance White Paper.

“We need to ensure that the talented people working in the NHS and social care have housing that supports their needs.

“We must be able to recruit and retain the staff we need without a lack of decent, affordable housing being a barrier … There is an opportunity to provide housing that will attract and retain the talent needed, as well as maintain control over the communities created, while retaining the ongoing value of the land assets within the NHS.”

Other national institutions in Britain are also looking at innovative ways to provide much-needed affordable housing.

The Church of England owns almost 200,000 acres of land and in 2021 its leaders announced groundbreaking plans to become a “major provider of social housing” nationally.

It published a landmark “Coming Home” report pledging to deliver 30,000 homes. It has established a Church Housing Foundation and appointed its first Bishop for Housing, Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani.

The Royal Family is even getting in on the act, with Prince William having told the Sunday Times earlier this year that he plans to build social housing on his 130,000acre Duchy of Cornwall estate, which stretches from Cornwall to Kent, in a bid to provide “living conditions up and down the country that improve people’s lives”.

Meanwhile, right of centre think tank the Policy Exchange suggested in its 2019 report that Labour’s Key Worker Housing initiative should be revitalised by the Conservatives.

It advised the government to increase the stock of homes available to Key Workers and to update the Key Worker eligibility criteria nationally.

New homes and renter’s charter pledge

LINDA AITCHISON reports on how the recent West Midlands mayoral election could impact housing policy.

The new West Midlands mayor, Richard Parker, has pledged to deliver 20,000 new homes, together with new private rented sector regulation, after he was elected.

Parker said he was set to “work with a Labour government, councils and builders” to increase its annual target to 19,000 West Midlands homes.

He has also pledged to support social landlords to build at least 2,000 “council and social homes” per year by 2028.

Parker said: “The construction of social and genuinely affordable homes, which we will fully champion, will be at the heart of our plans to fix the housing crisis, with development corporations providing capacity, support and expertise to councils.”

Parker has also vowed to bring in a West Midlands Renters’ Charter “to drive up standards and protect people from rogue landlords” and to introduce a mass insulation scheme.

He said: “We will train the people with the skills to deliver this as part of our jobs and industry programme. We will pioneer Labour’s green investment fund in the West Midlands and leverage funding to insulate thousands of homes and cut bills for those that need it most.”