Change rules to allow JVs with the NHS, Places for People director says

Ms Notay said the ideas are put forward in a paper from the NHS Homes Alliance, published last year.

She said: “There is a real momentum to this, there was a taskforce that was launched. But I think there are some really good ideas coming out of that with practical solutions, little tweaks to legislation that would enable the NHS to JV with partners like us, that can bring capital, that can bring delivery skills, and actually speedily get that mixed tenure of housing through.

“I am quietly optimistic because the officials have worked very hard to make it not a party-political offer. It is something that we’re hearing good noises from Labour and others [about]. That is something that we’re trying to pick up.

“It is such an obvious thing to change. But it has been 20, 30 years and no one’s been able to change it. If we can do that with NHS and MOD land, I think that would be a massive unlocking to drive out capital that we all know is sitting there waiting to come in.”

Ms Notay said she is working with economist Dame Kate Barker and her housing commission at the moment to look at how existing grant funding can be restructured. The commission will make recommendations on how to respond to the housing shortage in England.

“The biggest frustration if you talk to most local authorities or RPs is just the fact that the sheer amount of time that you have to spend bidding for relatively small pots, from different sources across central or local government,” she said.

Ms Notay said that by the time you file down the layers of governance for the pots of grant funding, they are “actually relatively small” and most local authority leaders don’t have the resources to do that.

“If we could just make that more coherent and consistent, make those processes smoother and faster, I think that could do a lot,” she said. “Better administration of existing grant funding would be really helpful.”

Speaking on the same panel, Alex Greaves, head of residential investment at M&G, called for the next government to deliver “confidence, certainty and stability” to encourage investment in housebuilding.

“Less regulation has a big impact on that and capital has a choice of where it can go,” he added. “It’s a bit like water and a leak – it’ll go wherever it finds its easiest route. And right now, it’s not coming to the UK on the basis of the problems that we’ve had historically.

“And now, it’s potentially a great opportunity simply because we’re in a bit of a low-tide moment, in my view from a market perspective.

“We’ve got a reset button to be pushed with the new government. And that in itself could give us a great opportunity to launch on the back of that to then see capital flow starting to come in, instead of making alternative choices to go to different places.”

James Blakey, planning and engagement director at Moda Living, said that housing supply in Scotland is in an “utter mess” after the Scottish government intervened, “messing in the mechanics of providing additional housing” with proposals of rent controls.

“Don’t over-regulate, don’t become too involved in it,” he said.

“Allow those people who are enablers to work and create that supply because there is utterly no supply, no funding institutional money coming into Scotland right now.”