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The Adam Smith Institute (ASI) branded 16th July the Cost of Rent Day in London to highlight how much of people’s salaries go towards keeping a roof over their head.

The Cost of Rent Day was created to mark the point at which renters in London have earned enough before tax to cover their annual rent bill. Before this event comes around, tenants are essentially working for their landlords. The ASI calculated rent as a share of income by dividing annual rents by gross annual pay for 309 areas across England – including all the London boroughs. Experts discovered that it’s not usually until the start of summer that London tenants start pocketing a fraction of their wage.

James Lawson, chairman of the ASI, said: ‘Higher salaries, which many professionals have historically moved to London for in the first place, do not compensate for the higher rent prices that they face.

‘In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis and nearly two decades of stagnation, London’s Cost of Rent Day is a damning indictment on the performance of our economy, and our failure to match the demand for homes with supply in the capital.’

However, some disparities in the capital city show not everyone is struggling to fork out for their rent costs. In Kensington and Chelsea, where rent has a 0.73 share of income, the Cost of Rent Day isn’t until 25th September. However, in Croydon, where rent has a 0.41 share of income, the day fell on 31st May.

The picture of individuals renting within the rest of England trying to keep up with their rent costs is an even bleaker one. Research found that the Cost of Rent Day national average fell on 5th May, a whole two months before London.

Arguably the news couldn’t have come at a worse time. The latest research shows rent prices in London have increased by a staggering 11% and an increasing number of locals are struggling to cover the costs of food and childcare. Although, just one week after the new Labour government have come into power, Keir Starmer has laid out plans to build 1.5 million homes during his reign by reintroducing mandatory housebuilding targets, constructing new towns and reforming the planning system.

Lawson has remarked that Labour’s new housing plans could be exactly what London needs.

‘Concrete proposals to reform our sclerotic planning system and to deliver the homes we need must be an urgent priority for both the government and opposition parties,’ Lawson said.

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Councillors from the northern-based local authority have recognised they need to provide more affordable properties but not at the expense of tenants needs.  

Since the pandemic and the cost-of-living, York City Councillors have been looking for new ways to provide locals with affordable homes. In 2022 the council agreed the second homes owners in York will have to pay double the amount of council tax in a bid to free up vacant properties. Now, the council have identified a number of new opportunities that will further their goal of providing more social homes.

After meeting, councillors agreed selling outdated or unsuitable property or land and investing the capital raised in buying or building more modern, energy-efficient homes would be useful. What’s more, this plan has been created alongside the continued delivery of 600 homes by the Council’s Housing Delivery Programme (HDP).

The HDP was created four years ago and during that time the scheme has provided 164 affordable homes – 56 were newly built and 108 have been bought. Existing building projects will deliver 67 new affordable homes and 12 more will be bought. The next phase of the HDP is to build 100% affordable Passivhaus homes. These are super energy efficient, zero carbon in use homes and 101 will be built at Ordnance Lane, Fishergate and about another 40 at Willow House in Walmgate.

In addition to opportunities being explored on all council owned land, there are some surplus sites which are unsuitable for affordable housing and have therefore been identified for sale on the open market. These include 22 The Avenue in Clifton, and five apartments in The Shambles.

Problems with the current system York are operating lie with the ages of certain homes. Of the 7,400 properties the council currently owns and manages, 140 of them date back to the 20th century making them extremely difficult to adapt and repair to basic living standards. However, these are set to be sold and replaced with more modern homes that are more economical to run.

Councillor Michael Pavlovic, executive member for housing at City of York Council, said: ‘We are committed to providing good quality, affordable housing for residents who struggle to afford market rates in the city where average house prices are now about 11 times the average salary. This is key to our residents’ wellbeing and financial security, as well as meeting our objectives to tackle climate change, health and economic challenges.

‘Our approach demands innovation and partnership with other social housing providers alongside financially supporting our 30-year Housing Revenue Account (HRA) business and investment plans. Looking ahead, we will strengthen and build strategic partnerships around land, funding, and shared objectives. Beyond the city boundaries, a strong partnership with North Yorkshire Council and Registered Providers is vital, as is exploring opportunities with the Combined Authority to boost affordable housing delivery.’

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The local authority is set to receive a £55m investment uplift from Homes England to accelerate the regeneration of the city’s historic docklands.

Today, Tuesday 16th July, a report is being put forward to members of the council’s cabinet recommending the local authority enters into an agreement with Homes England to accept Brownfield Infrastructure Land (BIL) grant funding. The news has come just weeks after chancellor Rachael Reeves has outlined Labour’s latest housing plans, of which building on brownfield sites is at the centre.

The funded has been provided for Central Docks, the largest neighbourhood within Liverpool Waters and the city’s largest brownfield site. The area is owned by waterside regeneration specialists Peel Waters and is projected to unlock more than £500m in private investment.

Overall the redevelopment programme includes the establishment of a public park and infrastructure to accommodate around 2,300 new homes.

Specialists have remarked that the key infrastructure within the 10.5 hectare scheme would comprise of utilities, thoroughfares green spaces, and public amenities, would lay the groundwork for future investments and the development of housing and commercial ventures would also support new community, retail and leisure facilities.

Against this backdrop, Liverpool City Council have also made similar brownfield site commitments in its draft housing strategy, which is currently subject to a public consultation, that supports the delivery of 2,000 new homes every year to 2030 and to double the number of affordable properties across the city.

Leader of Liverpool City Council, Cllr Liam Robinson, said: ‘This new funding from Homes England will help transform one of the country’s major brownfield sites and act as a huge economic catalyst for north Liverpool.

‘I was delighted to hear the new Chancellor cite Liverpool Waters as a key scheme in her first speech in the Treasury. Liverpool City Council stands ready to help deliver that mission to unlock our brownfield sites to kickstart a new era of house building.

‘The Central Docks scheme has the potential to be a true flagship scheme of what can be achieved by a partnership between central and local government and the private sector.

‘A huge amount of work has gone into our draft waterfront plan and housing strategy and it’s exciting to see such a key scheme getting ready to be delivered. Its success would mark a new decade of delivery this city deserves.’

Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, added: ‘Britain is under new management and, in just a few days, we are already starting to see the difference. Working hand in hand with government at a national, regional and local level we can make an enormous difference and drive growth locally.

‘The development of Central Docks, alongside the ongoing work to regenerate Bramley Moore and Bootle, has the potential to be a catalyst for growth and wider regeneration for great swathes of South Sefton and North Liverpool, creating jobs and attracting investment.

‘The Central Docks site was identified in the Liverpool Strategic Advisory Panel’s final report as a site for potential development. The £55m we’ve received is an enormous statement of intent – on top of the £31m we secured for the city back in March.

‘I’d like to pay tribute to the late Sir Howard Bernstein for all the support and expertise he brought to the Panel’s work.’

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Introducing increased use of permitted development rights (PDR) has been the biggest shake-up to the planning system. However, do recent announcements mark the completion of this form of planning consent, or can we expect even more changes?   

The revolution in permitted development rights began in 2013 with a change to the General Permitted Development Order to specific change of use to address the shortage of homes. Two years later, the permitted development rights to allow offices to be converted to residential use was made permanent.

These early days of change of use from commercial to residential saw some poor examples of office and light industrial conversions into homes, which are well documented (unfortunately dominating the media coverage despite some very successful examples). To mitigate this impact, in 2020 the government introduced a further requirement, for all new PD schemes to provide adequate natural light and comply with minimum space standards, which are set at a national level.

The next stage in the evolution was the amalgamation of a number of different uses under a single use class umbrella. Class E, a new use class category, introduced in September 2020, incorporates a variety of uses including shops and professional services, offices, a range of healthcare uses and indoor recreation – meaning that any changes between these uses do not require local planning authority discretion.

Then, from Class E sprang one of the most useful (if somewhat controversial) permitted development rights (PDR), Class MA, which allows the change of use from Class E to residential (Class C3).

Whilst previously Class O had allowed the change of use from office to residential, due to the wide range of uses covered by Class E, Class MA can now be utilised on many more sites and in many more instances.

The introduction of Class E and Class MA seems to indicate an increased desire from the government to deliver much needed housing and, in theory at least, Class MA should make this an easier process for developers.

The most recent update to the legislation now makes Class MA an even more attractive prospect as the 1,500 sq m floorspace threshold has now been omitted, as has the requirement for a site to have been vacant for a three month period prior to an application being submitted under Class MA.

Whilst there are very obvious benefits to developers under Class MA – such as no requirement to adhere to councils’ preferred unit mix or provide affordable housing (and lower application fees of course) – the requirements are not dissimilar from other planning applications in terms of the number of supporting documents required. For example, in pretty much every Class MA application I’ve been involved in, at a minimum, a daylight/sunlight assessment and transport statement have been required. Other supporting documentation could include a flood risk assessment or noise assessment depending on the site’s location. For sites within a conservation area, an impact assessment will also be needed.

Obviously, there is a need and responsibility to ensure that any residential units created under Class MA offer future occupiers a good standard of accommodation and that all units meet or exceed the minimum space standards and receive adequate levels of natural light (hence the daylight/sunlight assessments).

An issue I commonly come across when dealing with Class MA applications is that the site may tick the majority of boxes, but as the host building was not necessarily designed as residential accommodation, external alterations may be required so that the site is suitable for dwellings. Mostly these alterations relate to the addition or repositioning of windows and doors and, in some cases, the provision of cycle and refuse stores. This often results in a full planning application (for the external changes) running concurrently with the application for Class MA (for change of use) which can cause confusion. An appeal decision in 2022 confirmed the eligibility of a prior approval application and full planning application being submitted simultaneously, so this should provide confidence that concurrent applications can work in unison.

Does this case law indicate the next stage in the evolution of change of use policy? Given the number of instances in which a developer will have to run concurrent applications to ensure a good standard of accommodation can be delivered, could even more flexibility be applied to Class MA which makes allowances for external alterations to be covered in a single prior approval?

It is my opinion that this would certainly make life easier for both the applicant and council and avoid confusion though I understand that any such change would need to be carefully worded to ensure that any external alterations covered by Class MA specifically relate to the need to provide a good standard of accommodation.

More than a decade on from the first change of use legislation was introduced, many of the best opportunities – well located offices and former industrial units with good natural light and access to public spaces – have already been utilised. The next generation of conversions will inevitably require more external changes to meet the necessary standards which cannot currently be achieved through PDR alone.

With the government having recently updated the legislation to provide more flexibility, is it greedy or wishful thinking to hope that a further update could take place to avoid the hassle of having to, at times, run concurrent applications for ultimately the same end goal? In view of the housing crisis and the need to provide quality homes, especially on central brownfield locations I, and I suspect many others, would support such a move as the next necessary change in permitted development rights.

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Following inspections from the government social housing regulator four cities were scrutinised for their standards and management of social homes. Including Bristol.  

The report from The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH), which was published at the beginning of the week, outlined that one of the main problems with Bristol’s social homes is the huge backlog of repairs that are affecting around half of the homes in the city. Even more worryingly, experts discovered that there are thousands of overdue fire safety ‘actions’, and the council could not show that it is meeting carbon monoxide safety requirements for almost all of its 26,700 homes.

In response to these shocking findings, the council has admitted tackling the backlog will take a number of years – council chiefs are yet to set an estimated date by which things will have begun to get sorted. What’s more, the local authority is appealing to the new Labour government for additional funding as meeting new homes targets could cost ‘tens of millions’ of pounds.

The judgement from RSH read: ‘Bristol City Council could not evidence that it is meeting carbon monoxide safety requirements for over 22,000 homes (out of 26,700 total homes). It also reported 1,900 open damp and mould cases, more than 16,000 overdue repairs and 3,000 overdue fire safety actions. In addition, the council does not have up-to-date data about the condition of tenants’ homes.’

However, Bristol City Council have claimed the number of overdue repairs is closer to 11,000 – the 16,000 figure included occasions when council housing tenants reported the same issue more than once.

Kate Dodsworth, chief of regulatory engagement at the RSH, said: ‘Landlords must provide safe and decent homes for tenants, have an effective complaints process, and put things right when there are problems.

‘The judgements we published today show that each of these landlords have issues which they need to address promptly. All landlords need to make sure they deliver the outcomes in our standards and inform us when there are material issues.

‘Our new approach to regulation, which started in April, gives us new tools to scrutinise landlords’ performance and, where there are issues, drive them to deliver long-term improvements for the benefit of tenants.’

The new strategy to drive improvements in social housing was introduced by the RSH at the start of the year following various council property tragedies, including the case of Awaab Ishak. Under the new rules, landlords have to ensure tenants are safe in their homes, listen to complaints and know more about the condition of every home under their management and the needs of the individuals inhabiting in them.

After the new report from RSH was published, leader of Bristol City Council, Cllr Tony Dyer, said: ‘We apologise to all council tenants and those who live in our council owned homes,” he said. All residents should expect us, as a landlord, to deliver a high standard of housing and comply with national requirements, and we share these expectations.

‘We recognise that this news will likely cause concern for some residents. We do not wish for anyone to worry but recognise that better communication and further information is needed to ensure all residents are clear on what this judgement means and how we intend to fix the issues we face.’

‘Both our own internal assessment and that of the regulator sets out clearly where the gaps in our arrangements exist and provide a blueprint for improvement. We accept the findings of the regulator’s review and have committed to fix the issues we face in the shortest possible time,’ Cllr Dyer said. ‘Whilst we accept the failings in our own services, we also acknowledge the national challenge councils face in catching up with changing regulation at a time when funding is scarce. Our position is not unique, and we join a number of other local authorities who have found their arrangements to be inadequate to meet the necessary national standards for social housing.’

‘As we look internally at improving our arrangements to meeting a high level of regulatory compliance, we also look outwards, towards government, with an open hand to work together to deliver decent homes for social tenants,’ he added.

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The annual ceremony, recognising the bleeding edge of sustainable building design, development and management, was held on Wednesday 10th July.

Overall, nine awards were handed out to winners, each recognised for their efforts to advance and develop solutions to help create sustainable buildings. Among this year’s winners was HAUT Amsterdam – one of the tallest timber-hybrid buildings in the world – which took home the award for the Best New Construction for a Residential Project.

Sticking on a worldwide theme, KRK, whose BREEAM, the world’s leading sustainability assessment methodology for master planning projects, infrastructure and buildings, certification of 39 industrial and residential properties across the United States provided a clear roadmap for value creation and risk mitigation, took home the GRESB Portfolio Integration & Commitment Award. GRESB partnered with BREEAM – their eighth year working together – to recognise responsible investment in the built environment and the role that BREEAM plays in supporting ESG strategy.  

Coming away from organisations and focusing on buildings themselves, a major industrial unit and an iconic Tudor Street landmark – both situated in London – picked up the BREEAM Lifecycle Award and Best Refurbishment & Fit Out Project respectively.

Against this backdrop, SEGRO, a UK real investment trust, helped create a 33,000 sq ft facility at 2 Auriol Drive which became the first industrial refurbishment of its kind to achieve BREEAM Outstanding and is expected to receive an EPC A+ rating. Meanwhile, John Robertson Architects’ reimagination of the Grade II listed Northcliffe building, maintaining its industrial heritage as a 1920s print works, saw it achieve BREEAM Outstanding.

‘We are thrilled to recognise some of the greatest sustainability achievements in the built environment at this year’s BREEAM Awards,’ Gillian Charlesworth, CEO of BRE said.

‘Embracing science-based sustainability methodologies like BREEAM can deliver significant impacts for businesses, investors and for society as a whole. It is inspiring to see the innovative ways in which sustainability is being fostered and put front-and-centre across all our award winners and wider BREEAM scheme members.

‘With our network of over 14,000 assessors ensuring rigorous sustainability practices across the globe, we look forward to continuing to drive net zero ambitions across the entire built environment.’

A full list of the 2024 BREEAM award winners can be found below:

• HAUT Amsterdam – Best New Construction Residential Project
• Unilever Hive – Best New Construction Non-residential Project
• The Northcliffe – Best Refurbishment & Fit-out Project
• Mark e.o. Huizen – Best BREEAM In-Use Residential Building
• CTP Clubhaus – Best BREEAM In-Use Non-residential Building
• KKR – GRESB Portfolio Integration & Commitment Award
• Duurzaamheids Certificering – BREEAM Assessor Company Award
• 2 Auriol Drive – BREEAM Lifecycle Award
• Fugro NewHQ – Peoples’ Choice Whole of BREEAM Award

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