‘The whole house-building market, and model, is broken’

Kevin McCloud: ‘The whole house-building market, and model, is broken’  –  Article here

The Grand Designs host has argued against a fixation on housing numbers, saying that it leads to a neglect of quality in construction. According to McCloud, the house-building market prioritizes profit for shareholders over providing affordable, quality housing.  The consequence is the compromising of standards and issues such as the Grenfell tragedy.

McCloud argues that local authorities should have the power to set higher building standards than those set out in the building regulations in order to promote environmentally friendly housing solutions. He points out that quality housing can be achieved by learning from successful social housing projects, which often employ innovative technologies like passive housing and renewable energy sources.  Social housing is often at the forefront of implementing new technologies that prioritize residents’ well-being: the government should look to local housing associations for examples of high-quality, sustainable housing rather than foreign models, demonstrating that quality housing can be built effectively in the UK.

It is incredible and tragic that we continue to build housing that will need to be retrofitted at great expense to meet the challenges of Net Zero, climate change, and spiralling future energy costs.  It points to a massive market failure both in housebuilding and the mortgage sector, where banks and building societies are prepared to lend money for the purchase of homes and homeowners that will be highly exposed to increases in energy costs.  It also points to the failure by successive governments to adequately regulate and protect home purchasers and occupiers.  It is possible to build social housing to passivhaus standards, and there is no excuse for private sector housing not to be built to those same standards.

Extracted from Urban Update,  a free service from the Urban Design Group for all individuals and organisations who care about life in cities towns and villages:planners | landscape architects | architects | conservation practitioners | housebuilders | developers | engineers | surveyors | masterplanners | urban designers | urbanists | health professionals | politicians | citizens

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