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Hundreds sign up to AJ-backed architects’ affordable housing campaign

Goldsmith street by mikhail riches with cathy hawley 2
Goldsmith Street by Mikhail Riches with Cathy Hawley

More than 130 practices and organisations have pledged their support for a campaign by leading housing architects, demanding the new government ‘does better’ in delivering affordable housing for all

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 reach by pitman tozer killian o'sullivan4

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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