Government study highlights a new approach to house building

• Research
• Risk, Evidence and Decision Making

Posted on 20 March 2015

The Chancellor George Osborne announced in the March 2015 Budget that our Centre for Housing Policy (CHP) is to examine an alternative model of house building delivery which allows public agencies to directly commission the building of homes.

The proposed new approach means that the Government’s Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) will take responsibility for developing the land rather than commissioning commercial developers to do so. The aim is to double the rate of housing delivered to market by conventional development models.

Direct commissioning

The feasibility study, led by CHP Director Professor Becky Tunstall, will focus on the Northstowe development of former MOD land north of Cambridge where 10,000 homes are planned. Phase one of the development is going ahead using a conventional development model while phase two will see the HCA test direct commissioning of housing.

The research will involve a review of existing evidence and in-depth interviews with a range of industry representatives to explore the benefits of successful and cost-effective directly commissioned models of house building. It will also examine how any new models should be evaluated and implemented as well as assessing if they represent value for money.

Potential advantages

Professor Tunstall said: “The Centre for Housing Policy has many years of experience in evaluating new approaches to housing in the UK and abroad. Northstowe is a really interesting new development with potential advantages over standard building patterns. We are very pleased that the Government chose us to take forward this assessment of its effectiveness.”

The project also involves Dr Alison Wallace of CHP and two housing consultants, Nigel Ingram and Deborah Heenan, both with extensive expertise in the field.

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