In the weeks leading up to last week’s election, the AJ threw its weight behind the ‘positive’ manifesto for change put forward by the Architects’ Action for Affordable Housing collective. The group is made up of Pitman Tozer, HTA Design, Bell Phillips, Assael and Grounded, alongside Stirling Prize-winners Mae and Mikhail Riches.
They have now been joined by scores of other major practices including Adam Khan Architects, Alison Brooks Architects, Collective Architecture, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Haworth Tompkins, Heatherwick Studio, Henley Halebrown, Levitt Bernstein, Maccreanor Lavington, Mole Architects, Morris + Company, PRP, Sergison Bates, and vPPR (see full list below).
Organisations such as the Quality of Life Foundation, the Architecture Foundation and the London Forum of Amenity & Civic Societies have also signed up – as have hundreds more individuals.
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The group is still calling for ‘as many architects as possible’ to join the campaign, which continues to push affordable housing into the political spotlight. Among other demands, the campaigners are urging the new Labour government to back a 20-year housing plan that provides a fair and equitable supply of homes where they are most needed.
Among the main policies set out under the five ‘priority’ heads, is a call to promote the role of the housing minister to cabinet, giving the position more power, and to avoid the ‘revolving door’ of politicians overseeing the delivery of housing.
On Friday (5 July) Angela Rayner was officially appointed as secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities. The MP for Ashton-under-Lyne has held the housing brief in Labour’s shadow cabinet since 2023.
Rayner had promised to deliver 40 per cent affordable homes within all new development as part of Labour’s plan for a new generation of new towns.
Architects’ Action for Affordable Housing believes a potential boom in affordable housing numbers would result in ‘economic prosperity for all’ and feed into all of the party’s growth agenda.
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Its online manifesto calls for better resources to be given to council planning departments, all new social housing to meet RIBA 2030 carbon targets, the equalisation of VAT between new-builds and retrofits, the reduction in the Right To Buy subsidy, and boosting self-build through tax breaks and the release of public land.
It also calls for the introduction of a retrofit first policy.
Speaking the day after Labour’s landslide victory, a spokesperson for the campaign group said: ‘Our campaign continues to raise the importance and ambition for affordable housing, as an engine of growth, to deliver on climate targets, skills, social equity along with personal and community empowerment.
‘Far too many people are suffering in unsuitable housing, from bed and breakfast temporary accommodation, to expensive, leaky and damp and overcrowded homes on the private market. As a society we are all living with the consequences – poorer health, poorer education and less economic growth.’
They added: ‘The new government has the opportunity to raise its ambition and deliver more and better affordable housing, to fulfil and build on the promise of its manifesto. It can show that a long-term, planned, stable approach can provide the homes we all need for the long term.
‘[We] have the desire and the skills to help the new government achieve these goals, and look forward to holding an event and to working with them in the coming days.’
The AJ has acted as media partner for the campaign and has already run a series of pieces outlining how the policies could work, how they could be implemented and what impact they might have.
AJ editor Emily Booth said: ‘We support the profession and we are pleased to back this architects-led campaign, with its practical and positive actions to tackle the housing crisis.
‘The industry is ready and willing to be a part of a new drive to create better homes for everyone.’
Architects wanting to support the campaign can go to the website or email mail@5affordablehousingpriorities.co.uk
The proposed priorities for an incoming government – in full
(1) Prioritise affordable housing to deliver growth
1.1 National Plan: Establish a cross-party working group to produce a 20-year National Affordable Housing plan.
1.2 Minister: Elevate the importance of housing to a cabinet position, avoiding the revolving door of housing ministerial appointment.
1.3 Planning: Better resources for local authority planning departments and associated design resources, with higher planning fees, and a shared vision and mission to provide more affordable housing.
1.4 Reward growth: Incentivise the industry with higher grant rates for a higher percentage of affordable housing in each scheme.
(2) Link net zero and affordable housing policies
2.1 Link social housing supply to net-zero goals. All social housing to be designed to adopt RIBA 2030 targets (operational energy/embodied Carbon/water/health and wellbeing). Ensure new housing is planned around low-carbon public transport infrastructure.
2.2 Introduce a decarbonisation hierarchy. Retrofit first. Promote passive measures to reduce operational carbon.
2.3 Finance: Link energy efficiency to stamp duty: more efficient homes = less stamp duty. Equalise VAT between new-builds and retrofits to level playing field.
2.4 Create incentives for regenerative building material supplies (UK forestry).
(3) Build a resilient, fair and sustainable industry
3.1 Establish a green building knowledge exchange with international partners to develop zero-carbon construction skills and technologies capable of adoption at scale.
3.2 Grow the workforce of tomorrow by reforming the apprenticeship levy to enable a new generation of skilled construction workers.
3.3 Legislate to ensure suppliers and freelance contractors are protected from exploitative contract and payment terms.
3.4 Support regenerative material production and skills to increase local supply chains and a green economy.
(4) Create equity in housing supply
4.1 Reduce Right To Buy subsidy: steadily diminish subsidy over term or parliament.
4.2 Planned approach: Develop regional spatial plans to generate employment where housing is affordable and sustainable energy infrastructure available. Ensure integrated urbanism – prioritise sites with social infrastructure and employment opportunities included in schemes.
4.3 Regulate: Local Plans to mandate sites mix of type, tenure and development quantum, and to address specialist needs (later living etc) and set affordable housing percentage as a requirement not a target.
4.4 Establish a Royal Commission for the temporary accommodation emergency.
(5) Empower a self-build and community housing drive
5.1 Create tax incentives for self-build homes (zero stamp duty).
5.2 Establish fund for government mortgage finance for self-build homes.
5.3 Allocate public land for wider adoption of self-build and community housing.
5.4 Provide specific funding for community housing and to incentivise multigenerational communities and homes.
Source:Jim Stephenson 2021
AA4AH - List of Supporting organisations |
Henley Halebrown |
Levitt Bernstein |
Alison Brooks Arch |
Tate & Co |
Haworth Tompkins |
Maccreanor Lavington Architects |
Mole Architects |
5th Studio |
vPPR Architects |
Pollard Thomas Edwards |
Haptic |
Morris & Co |
ZCD Architects |
CarverHaggard |
BPTW |
Allies and Morrison |
Formation Architects |
Metropolitan Workshop |
PRP |
nimtim architects |
Weston Williamson + Partners |
FeatherstoneYoung |
Heatherwick Studio |
Frank Shaw Associates |
Andy Matthews Studio |
Pentan Architects |
AOC Architecture |
Lyndon Goode Architects |
Adam Khan Architects |
Urban Mesh Design |
Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios |
Ash Sakula |
Threefold |
Sergison Bates architects |
iceni projects |
Collective Works |
TYPE |
Soft Cities |
Singh Fudge Architects |
Kind & Co |
Hoskins Architects |
VU.CITY |
StudioUrban |
Donald Moir Architect |
Weston Williamson |
Wendover Partners |
Benjamin Wells Studio |
Levitate |
Tsuruta Architects |
LSI Architects |
Shepheard Epstein Hunter |
Ossian Architects |
Goldstein Heather |
Design ID |
Patriarche |
TROLLEY studio |
Jane Simpson Access |
Ealing Matters |
Fuse Architects |
London Community Land Trust |
XERA Homes |
Paddock Johnson Partnership |
Pace Architecture |
Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios |
Archio |
Chetwoods |
HBD |
Erbar Mattes Architects |
COSTA+WOLF |
Marchini Curran Associates |
Redloft |
Edgingtons |
SoundBuild |
Ann Nisbet Studio |
Oberlanders Architects |
Re-Format Architects |
Studio Act |
BuroHappold |
SKArchitects |
Max Fordham |
Levitate Architecture |
Frank Shaw Associates |
ADP architecture |
Borough Architects |
sJAM architects |
MEA Studio |
Civic Engineers |
Wates Group |
London Forum of Amenity & Civic Societies. |
Architecture For (the) Reasonably Ordinary (AFRO) |
K Bava Architects |
Wates Group |
Lincoln Consult |
HUTCH design |
Avanti Architects |
Fourthspace |
GRID |
South Facing |
Architecture Foundation |
KLH Sustainability |
Cartwright Pickard |
Failed Architecture / Loom |
Human Nature |
Michael Taylor Architects |
Urban Radicals |
Stitch |
Jas Bhalla Works |
TRA Studio |
Cascade |
sargeant-architects |
Catja de Haas architects |
Twentysix. |
Devlin Architects |
Gary Kellett Architects |
NM Jansson Studio |
SS4 Architects |
Useful Projects / Expedition Engineering |
Andrew Catto Architects |
Ksquared |
Child Graddon Lewis |
fosterperpatidou |
DS2 |
Benham Architects |
Arka Works |
Rural Solutions |
Neil Wilson Architects |
GRID |
Studio Act |
daab design Architects |
Harper Perry |
Studio Weave |
Proptech Analytics |
Collective Architecture |
Quality of Life Foundation |
Mae |
Grounded |
Assael Architecture |
Mikhail Riches |
Bell Phillips |
HTA |
Pitman Tozer Architects |
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