New investment is set to boost the country’s efforts to tackle the housing crisis across regions including the West of England.
£6.55 million has been secured for the region to lead a national scheme making the most of smaller plots of council-owned land, thanks to funding from the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government (MHCLG) due to be accepted by the Mayor and council leaders at their next meeting on 30 January.
The West of England Mayoral Combined Authority is set to become the national delivery partner for the Small Sites Aggregator pathfinder programme, a ground-breaking trial announced in the summer for Bristol, Sheffield, and the London Borough of Lewisham. It aims to deliver around 1,000 new homes across some 60 sites before being rolled out more widely, helping to tackle the housing crisis and temporary accommodation challenges by building new homes more quickly, with a focus on moving households with children out of long-term managed homelessness.
Engaging with small and medium enterprise-sized housebuilders, modern methods of construction, and private finance partners, the initiative aims to overcome the pre-development costs and planning permission challenges that often mean smaller sites with capacity for fewer than 100 homes are left undeveloped. It hopes to enable councils to develop further plans for new homes for social rent on their own sites. Across urban areas, smaller sites have the potential to make a significant contribution of much-needed social rent housing, especially when brownfield plots are bundled together to be planned, funded, and built at scale.
The scheme draws on the concept developed by the Social Housing Initiative convened by Lloyds Banking Group, and the work of the Small Sites Taskforce, initiated by the Social Housing Initiative and chaired by Stephen Peacock, the Chief Executive of the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority.
Meanwhile, the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority and local councils including North Somerset are working together again towards a Spatial Development Strategy, after two previous attempts at a regional strategic plan were withdrawn/halted in 2019 and 2022. A worsening national housing crisis has since left 2,000 children in our region living in temporary accommodation, with Bristol experiencing the third-highest rate of any core city; house prices in Bath hit twenty-times average earnings; and 35,000 local families waiting for social housing.
The regional Growth Strategy, approved in the autumn, outlines an ambition for a new £500 million Future Places Fund to help tackle the housing crisis and ensure high-quality development with the infrastructure that local people and businesses need. The Strategic Place Partnership, signed by the Mayor with Homes England in the summer has since been expanded to cover North Somerset – following prior approval at the Town Hall in Weston-super-Mare. This expansion has strengthened the case for further investment from both Homes England and government departments, while providing more certainty and confidence to the private sector for its pipeline of new homes.
The government recently announced the rollout of the Small Sites Aggregator last month, as part of a package of wide-ranging measures to ramp up housing delivery and support the aim to build 1.5 million new homes this Parliament.
Helen Godwin, Mayor of the West of England, said:
“We need to invest to tackle the housing crisis and make the most of brownfield land across the West. This pilot scheme is an important innovation for our region and will see derelict plots of land transformed into much-needed new homes.
“Taking on this national leadership role is another real vote of confidence in the new chapter we have started in our part of the world. The West of England has an important part to play as the country works together to build 1.5 million new homes.
“Bolstered by this new funding, we hope to show that small sites can make a big difference and help provide permanent social rent homes for families living in temporary accommodation.”
Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook said:
“I am delighted the West of England Combined Authority will become our delivery partner for the Small Sites Aggregator pathfinder.
“They will play a crucial role in turning small brownfield sites into new social homes on sites that might otherwise have remained undeveloped, with each home providing a vital lifeline for those stuck in temporary accommodation.”
Councillor Mike Bell, Leader of North Somerset Council, said:
“We’re working closely with the West of England Combined Authority and other regional partners to help tackle the housing crisis and deliver affordable homes for local people. Through our Local Plan consultation, we are engaging with residents on how we can plan for the homes the government expects us to deliver, while ensuring development is sustainable, responsible and meets our climate commitments. New homes must be accompanied by the right infrastructure including transport, healthcare, schools and employment. We will continue to urge the government to provide the necessary funding, infrastructure and support needed to meet this challenge and build successful, thriving communities for future generations.”
Adam Rainey, Ambassador for the South West at Lloyds Banking Group, said:
“We’re delighted that the West of England Combined Authority have been selected as national delivery partners for the Small Sites Aggregator – an important milestone in demonstrating how a national, standardised model can be combined with locally based delivery to attract private investment and accelerate housing development.
“Through the Social Housing Initiative, we’re proud to have helped facilitate this innovation in housing finance and delivery – unlocking fragmented and underutilised land which although currently lying empty, has the potential to provide good quality homes in our towns and cities.
“Our hope is that this exciting new partnership between central government, regional leaders and the private sector will, through scale, overcome barriers in planning and construction to deliver the genuinely affordable homes that are needed across the UK.”
