Are viability gaps killing your projects? Join our campaign to close them
Planning reform, however radical, will not move the dial on the UK’s sluggish housing delivery record unless the government also commits to significant grant funding to unlock sites in the North of England.
For years, housing providers, developers, and investors have been loud and clear about what needs to be done to tackle the housing crisis. Place North has listened and is taking action.
Alongside Cavendish and Lichfields, we have launched Mind the Gap, a campaign for a government discretionary grant aid programme for the North.
We believe that intervention to address viability is the only way the government can hope to achieve its ambitious target of 1.5m homes by the end of the parliament.
It is time the Northern property market had a unified voice to take the issues that matter to our industry directly to Downing Street. This campaign aims to do just that.
Since launching the campaign late last year, the property industry has responded en masse. Some of the North’s biggest developers and consultancies have already thrown their support behind Mind the Gap by adding their names to the list of signatories.
These include:
Cert Property, Genesis Homes, Placefirst, Turner & Townsend, Cityheart, Cushman & Wakefield, Hill Dickinson, Richborough Estates, Fairhurst Architects, Step Places, Mansell Building Solutions, Caro Developments, Hive Land & Planning, Casey Group, JLL, Persimmon Homes, Sheppard Robson, Chancerygate, Deetu, Alderley Group, BA Commercial, Cassel & Fletcher, Gleeds, Roberts Real Estate, OMD, Cubico, Story Homes, Mott MacDonald, Oakmere Homes, Brabners, Walker Sime, BDP, Sigma Capital, SimpsonHaugh, NJL Consulting, CBRE, Jarron Investments, Mosaic Town Planning, Progressive Living, Morgan Sindall Construction, Cole Waterhouse, and many more.
If you work in property, you can show your support by adding your name to the signatories of this campaign – just enter your name, job title, and company below. The more people that sign, the more power the campaign has. Multiple people can sign from the same company.
Cllr Paul Drake-Davis, who holds the regeneration portfolio at Hull City Council is among the local authorities supporting Mind the Gap.
“Hull is ready to play its part in meeting the current housing crisis that is challenging towns and cities all over England,” he said.
“We can create thousands of new sustainable homes on brownfield land close to our city centre but with the challenge of low land values, flood risk, and decontamination costs plus unique and notorious ground conditions there will be inevitable viability gaps.
He added: “That’s why I signed up for this campaign. Hull will do its bit but we need government funding to help give our ambitious plans lift off.”
Nicky Gordon, chief executive of Genesis Homes is one of many developers to throw its support behind the campaign. He said it is time for the government to get real.
“It is time this government had a reality check and started a serious housing-first, pro-development approach,” he said.
“After the last few years of rising costs through inflation, the last thing we needed was an increase in employment costs and talks of levy to enable nutrient neutrality stalled sites. It is time for the government to start project specific grant funding to see development get off the ground in the North.”
The North has the land, expertise, and capacity to build many more homes than it does presently. But too many sites across the North don’t stack up financially. Due to low values and high costs, sites ideally located for new homes are left undeveloped because they are not viable.
Meanwhile, public money goes too often to sites with higher values in the South, leaving the North to miss out again and again.
Mind the Gap hopes to change that.
“The response to our Mind the Gap campaign has been fantastic but not surprising,” said Dino Moutsopoulos, managing partner for Place North.
“It is clear to us and the industry that viability is the biggest single issue threatening the government’s ambitious housing targets and frankly the growth and stability of the North of England.
“I encourage all invested in the property market to sign up to the campaign and share widely in order for us to help represent you and your concerns at the highest level,” he said.
“Place North has championed the property market for 18 years and now, with a pan-Northern position, we want to help make a real difference by creating and driving a campaign to garner signatures and to take a collective voice to Westminster prior to the Spending Review,” Moutsopoulos continued.
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More companies back Place North’s Mind the Gap campaign
Businesses from all corners of the built environment sector are throwing their weight behind a campaign to pressure government into providing grant funding to solve the North’s viability crisis. Have you signed up yet?
