黑洞社区

Keir Starmer should hold a COBRA meeting to deal with the housing crisis if he becomes prime minister after Thursday鈥檚 election, according to the co-head of British Land鈥檚 Canada Water scheme.

COBRA meetings are typically convened to handle matters of national emergency or major disruption, helping coordinate different departments and agencies in their response.

Emma Cariaga, who is also head of residential at British Land, said that if Labour entered government it would need to 鈥済et on and be ambitious from the get-go鈥�.

鈥淧arliamentary terms are finite and some of the scale of the changes they are wanting to get through are controversial and require an element of top down, centralist policymaking,鈥� she said, speaking at a panel event on Tuesday event organised by the RICS.

Cariaga continued: 鈥淚f I was Keir Starmer, I would be calling a COBRA meeting 鈥� I鈥檓 not sure there鈥檚 ever been a COBRA meeting on housing but if it鈥檚 that much of a national crisis and on the top of everyone鈥檚 agenda then it ought to 鈥� and then get on very quickly laying down on the statute book the policies that they need to be able to do the changes they want, not least around new towns.

鈥淔or me that鈥檚 probably going to be the biggest, toughest job to land and making some ground on that with a landslide majority in the House will be really important.鈥�

Urban regeneration expert Jackie Sadek, who co-hosts , agreed with Cariaga, adding that a 鈥渨ar footing鈥� was necessary to address the issue.

She also urged the next government to encourage a much more prominent role for the public sector.

鈥淭he last time we didn鈥檛 have a housing crisis was when the state directly intervened in the late 70s 鈥� it鈥檚 as simple as that,鈥� she said, adding that a 鈥渃ross-party accord鈥� with the Conservative Party would be necessary to make this happen.

Her podcast co-host Peter Bill, a former editor of Housing Today鈥檚 sister title 黑洞社区, warned against an overly centralized approach.

鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to look at this situation from the bottom up [鈥�] the idea that you can reform the planning system and suddenly magically create one and a half million houses in five years is complete nonsense 鈥� it cannot and will not happen,鈥� he said.

鈥淏ut what you can do is encourage councils in all sorts of ways is to get involved politically in producing homes to reduce their own waiting lists鈥�.

He suggested government give councils grants on a site-by-site basis, allowing them to go out to tender to builders and ask them how many half-market rental homes could be delivered in exchange for the land.

>>See also: England needs 550,000 new homes a year to solve housing shortage, says report

>>See also: Labour to make major housing announcements 鈥榳ithin a fortnight鈥� of winning the election

Stephen Teagle, chief executive of Vistry Partnerships, said a 鈥渇inancially robust purchasing sector鈥� would be crucial to the success of any mass housebuilding project.

鈥淲e already see that we have got for-profit RPS, and we鈥檝e got PRS providers and we鈥檝e got global capital looking to invest in UK residential,鈥� he said.

鈥淲e need to harness that, but we need support, we need the infrastructure that our housing associations and our local authorities represent.

鈥淢y absolute belief is that we need to see a ten-year rent settlement, we need to see 10-year settlement from local authorities.

鈥淭he new homes bonus, I think I鈥檓 right in saying, is set annually 鈥� how can you possibly plan for the production of a housing supply on a 12-month basis.鈥�

Giles Mackay, founder of Heylo Housing agreed that 鈥渦nless there is a really good financial model that supports all of this demand, it is not going to happen鈥�.

He said that the government needed to be realistic about the money necessary to fix the housing crisis, adding: 鈥淵ou can either borrow it or you can tax it.鈥�