Affordable housing solution #3: build a resilient, fair and sustainable industry

Today we hear from Félicie Krikler, director of Assael Architecture and Chloë Phelps, chief executive of Grounded, who have helped draw up a 20-point ‘positive’ manifesto for change alongside fellow collective members HTA Design, Bell Phillips, Pitman Tozer, Mae and Mikhail Riches.

Each week, architects from this group of leading housing specialists will explain how their five priority action points could work.

Since launching last week, the campaigners’ dedicated website has had more than 1,000 visitors and continues to look to expand the list of supporting practices.

As well as getting the message out to potential parliamentary candidates, the group intends to follow up post-election with the new government.

Priority 3: Build a resilient, fair and sustainable industry

Chloë Phelps: This priority is so critical to our campaign. Without a design and construction industry that is future-fit, resilient and equitable, there is little chance that the country will be able to meet its housing needs.

Starting with procurement, the architecture industry is made up of predominately small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) spending large amounts of resource pursuing public sector tenders. If these processes were more standardised and considered, it would help to address our businesses’ stability and profitability, allowing us to invest more in people and development.

We also need to revolutionise what it means to work in this industry; how do we make it more attractive, safe and fair? Getting to make and shape the places we live in should be exciting. Let’s encourage and demonstrate enterprise and innovation. We need a new government to help us invest for the future, to upskill and get ready for the retrofit challenge ahead. We need to embrace opportunities like AI to rapidly transform our productivity.

Félicie Krikler: Interestingly, the Farmer Review of 2016, Modernise or Die, suggested that the UK’s construction industry faced ‘inexorable decline’ with several longstanding problems (see comments bottom). It highlighted the sector’s dysfunctional training model, its lack of innovation and collaboration, and its non-existent research and development (R&D) culture. This was nearly 10 years ago, and while some progress has been made, much more needs to happen, especially in relation to decarbonisation.

Since Brexit, we have lost many construction skills and this needs to be addressed urgently. We must train and nurture the construction workers who will deliver these projects.

Policies:
3.1 Establish a green building knowledge exchange with international partners to develop zero-carbon construction skills and technologies capable of adoption at scale

Krikler: There are good examples to look at abroad. To promote retrofit in Europe, the Energy Efficiency Directive adopted by the EU in September 2023 promotes the creation of ‘one-stop retrofit shops’ for every 80,000 people. As Marion Baeli from 10 Design explains: ‘Physical one-stop shops across the UK, acting in tandem with a web-based platform, would go a long way to provide the array of information required to improve access to mainstream knowledge in relation to greener materials, contractors etc.’

Phelps: One of the key issues for new low embodied carbon products, particularly in affordable housing, is around certification, warranties and the costs of achieving that get baked into the product, making them incredibly difficult to justify on affordable housing schemes. Finding a way to work with international partners through these knowledge exchanges to create affordable, safe, but low carbon materials is critical to their adoption.

Using these networks we also need to make much more of project data and artificial intelligence to minimise greenwashing and make objective and informed decisions on where to focus our resources.

3.2 Grow the workforce of tomorrow by reforming the apprenticeship levy to enable a new generation of skilled construction workers.

Krikler:  The Labour Party has recommitted to broadening the existing Apprenticeship Levy into a Growth and Skills Levy, allowing firms to use up to 50 per cent of their levy contributions to fund training through routes other than apprenticeships. It seems like the right time to better align a levy with the evolving needs of employers, making it more flexible for employers.

But apprenticeships are not enough to provide the required workforce. A much greater push is needed to incentivise greater access into the sector. A combination of apprenticeships and subsidised/paid training would seem necessary to generate an influx of new workers.

We also need to ‘train the trainers’; we need to upskill the whole supply chain of training.

Phelps: In addition to our immediate industry, there is a growing issue with the ageing construction industry and lack of traction with the next generation. Without this, we’re going to grind to a halt or see costs of labour soar.

A recent survey by the Chartered Institute of Building showed that nearly three in ten people would be unlikely to recommend a career in construction to their children or other young people. The industry is seen as having hard working conditions, low pay and job prospects, so there is a need to overcome this perception. Off-site and modular construction is more safe, effective and attractive, but struggles with adequate supply chains and being competitive with traditional construction methods.

3.3 Legislate to ensure suppliers and freelance contractors are protected from exploitative contract and payments terms.

Phelps: Architecture is part of our vibrant creative sector in the UK but it is reliant on freelancers, with nearly a million self-employed people. There needs to be greater security and regulation if this important and flexible part of the workforce is to retain a viable career path.

Krikler: It’s probably worth mentioning procurement at this point too. There is a growing tendency for public tenders to be ever more demanding on architects and design teams with some contract terms uninsurable and non-negotiable.

Poor procurement practice wastes time spent on bidding to the detriment of design quality, social value and fair staff remuneration. The process needs to follow better standards of practice to be fair.

3.4 Support regenerative material production skills to increase local supply chains and a green economy.

Phelps: Labour has pledged to create homes through new towns and grey- belt developments. These represent huge opportunities for regenerative material production that can foster local enterprise, training programs and job opportunities in the creation of these places.

There's plenty of scope to work with local enterprises

At Grounded, we are working on the Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community masterplan, which will be realised over the next 20 to 30 years, so there is plenty of scope to work with local enterprises and institutions to be an incubator for the green economy.

We are also looking at how we can be local-character-specific by using low embodied energy materials that could be locally grown or sourced rather than creating architectural styles that are pastiche rehashes.

Krikler: Raising knowledge and skills around the use of regenerative materials and the importance of designing for reuse and disassembly is necessary to go against the linear model and the business-as-usual approach of construction.

The recently published policy paper Materials Passports: Accelerating Reuse in Construction, by Lancaster University and ORMS, is giving a methodology to modernise our relationship with materials by creating a materials passport database -– an essential tool to promote a circular economy and expand the lifecycle of materials. Collaborative initiatives such as this are to be encouraged to create a more cohesive industry approach to sustainable production.

To support the campaign visit the website or email mail@5affordablehousingpriorities.co.uk