Future Homes Commission Report

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Britain needs a revolution in the scale, quality and funding of home building if we are to have any hope of meeting the housing needs of our growing and changing population.

The challenge is not just to increase the number and standard of homes being built for many years to come, but to develop communities which enhance the quality of life for both new residents and existing communities nearby. All this can happen without additional government funding.

The Future Homes Commission is convinced that such a revolution is possible. To make it happen, there have to be five big changes to the way the UK approaches house building: 1. A three-fold increase in the number of new homes being built every year, to over 300,000. Land will be needed in or close to virtually every city, town and village. If the potential of the home building industry can be unlocked, half of these new homes could be built for sale on the open market. At the same time, there needs to be a massive increase in homes built for rent or shared ownership. These should be built in sustainable communities of mixed-tenure homes on brownfield land or immediately adjacent to existing towns and villages 2. A kick-start from an independent ÂŁ10 billion Local Housing Development Fund, financed and owned by local authority pension funds with their combined assets of over ÂŁ180 billion. This fund would be the cornerstone investor in local developments of sustainable, mixedtenure communities across the country, particularly in our larger cities. Once these developments are mature they will be ideal investments for UK and international institutional investors, many of whom want to invest in UK residential property for rent, but are not about to take any development risks 2