Design Competition Demonstrates Future for Affordable Housing
Communities and Local Government Secretary Ruth Kelly will today call on local
authorities and house builders to use the £60,000 house to increase affordable
housing in communities across the country.
This week's Design for Manufacture exhibition showcases the nine winning designs
in the government's contest to design a good-quality home for a construction
cost of £60,000. The competition has demonstrated that it is possible
to be cost efficient and improve design standards at the same time.
On the 10 demonstration sites, competition winners will build at least 300
homes for sale on a shared equity basis for first time buyers unable to compete
in the market. These will include properties where people will be able to buy
their first equity share of a two-bedroom home for between £55-70,000.
The homes are being built on former public sector land as part of mixed, sustainable
communities where at least half of the homes will be affordable. Of the 1,000
homes provided, a further 200-300 homes will be social housing for rent with
the balance being housing for full sale by developers on the open market.
By using public sector land and lower construction costs, English
Partnerships has been able to deliver higher than average levels of affordable
homes within mixed communities on these sites. The government now wants to see
the same approach rolled out on surplus public sector land across the country
to increase affordable housing. Ms Kelly is calling on local authorities to
use their own surplus land to deliver more shared equity schemes for local families.
The government will be producing guidance for local authorities who want to
adopt English Partnerships' approach.
The ground-breaking competition jointly run by the
Department for Communities and Local Government and English Partnerships
- the national regeneration agency - has resulted in practical lessons for the
house-building industry, including how to reduce construction costs while retaining
high standards of quality as well as how to build houses at a high density.
The competition also suggests further opportunities to cut costs and improve
design for social housing, making it possible to build more homes.
Welcoming the start of the exhibition, Ruth Kelly said:
"The Design for Manufacture competition shows that it's possible to build
homes more cost-efficiently without sacrificing quality. The winning projects
have really pushed back the boundaries, producing innovative designs that maximise
space and minimise environmental impact.
"The challenge now is to build on this and bring the lessons learnt from
the competition in to the heart of house building. We need more decent affordable
homes and there is no reason why they should not also be of high quality design.
"We are committed to helping make this happen and will be working with
local authorities, developers and other partners to realise this goal."
Trevor Beattie, the English Partnerships Director with responsibility for the
competition, said:
"The Design for Manufacture competition has resulted in a host of innovative
new home designs and construction techniques that can be used to build homes
more economically without sacrificing quality. These benefits will be passed
on to purchasers in the form of homes that are better built, cheaper to run
and above all, cheaper to buy.
"Throughout the challenge we have seen many groundbreaking ideas that
are a credit to our industry. We have all learned a lot from this competition
and English Partnerships will now work to ensure that these lessons are taken
up by the market as a whole."
Initial findings from the competition include:
Construction costs can be tamed without sacrificing quality - developers that
closely linked their design, suppliers and delivery teams into a single process
achieved savings. Higher-density housing can be achieved with houses, not just
flats - developments built as a result of this competition will achieve densities
of over 60 homes per hectare, mainly with houses.
Reducing construction costs does not mean reducing size - the competition required
all homes constructed for £60,000 to be a minimum of 76.5 sq m (823.46
sq ft). In fact, some of the homes will be built larger than this, some at around
88 sq m.
Good design can slash energy bills and tackle climate change - some of the
winning designs are groundbreaking in terms of energy efficiency and have features
which will help keep homes warm in winter and cool in summer.
A total of six developers have been chosen to build their designs across nine
competition sites. Construction work is beginning on four of the sites.
Developments at Oxley Park in Milton Keynes, Upton in Northampton, Allerton
Bywater near Leeds and Renny Lodge, Newport Pagnell all received planning permission
within 10-13 weeks of an application being submitted.
Posted 15th May 2006
