In the rush to build 1.5 million homes how do we safeguard quality?

True to its word, Labour has been quick out of the traps with building-boosting planning reforms a central feature of last’s week’s King’s Speech. Of course, as everyone knows, there are long odds against 1.5 million homes being built over the next five years. But the change in tone, with the prime minister and chancellor emphatically pinning their colours to the housebuilding mast, has created the sense of energy and dynamism that transformational change requires.

It’s an undoubted confidence boost for housebuilders. And with affordability and social housing a key part of the government’s pledge, it holds out hope for the 1.2 million currently on council waiting lists, the 30% of 25-29 year olds still living with their parents, and the growing number of couples delaying starting a family because they cannot afford a decent-sized home.

But in the rush to build, and absolutely no hints at how we might pay for it all, how exactly do we safeguard quality? Aspiration cannot just be about building more at any cost, can it?

We all want well designed, sustainable and healthy homes and places. And thankfully there are plenty of examples of new developments that fit that bill. Just look at the Housing Design Awards, or the Building Awards’ own Housing Project of the Year shortlist this year if you want inspiration and assurance. But we are talking about building at a speed and scale that has not been attempted since the mid-1970s. And this in an environment where government is heavily reliant on the private sector to do a lot of the heavy lifting.

There’s a mountain to climb if we are to see uniformly appealing and pleasantly habitable new homes springing up across the land

Sadly, there’s a mountain to climb if we are to see uniformly appealing and pleasantly habitable new homes springing up across the land. Building spurts since the 2008 crash have resulted in far too many homes of dubious quality. The 2010s was rife with examples of shoddy housebuilding practices as sites came back to life. Uneven floors, dodgy plumbing, water cascading through the roof, and many more dismaying defects came to the fore.

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Fingers were pointed at the lack of market competition and skills shortages – both issues that are just as prevalent today, as stories continue to surface about poor quality housebuilding and the struggle homeowners face getting things sorted out.

Alongside these perennial problems, we continue to see uninspiring new places with occasional scanty tufts of grass sticking out of harsh blackened Tarmac gardens and pavements seeking to compensate for the absence of any planting. And worst of all, thousands of homeowners continue to reel from the cladding scandal that saw new homes decked out in flammable material that fell far short of compliance with the Building Regulations.

Changes have been put in place to raise safety standards, but questions remain as to whether other problems have sufficiently robust solutions and mechanisms. Has the New Homes Ombudsman sharp enough teeth, for example? Can the Office for Place banish blacktop and other hideous eyesores by inspiring local planners and builders to raise their game and embrace beauty and greenery in their designs.

In its manifesto Labour refers to “taking steps” to ensure more high quality, well-designed and sustainable homes. These include devolving powers over transport, adult education and skills, housing and planning, and employment support. Angela Rayner went so far as to unveil designs of chocolate-box style avenues of Edwardian mansion blocks to prove that Labour was all for “quality streets”.

Labour certainly do not give the impression of being a deregulatory administration – on the contrary. The new government’s green goals could see even more requirements coming developers way with Ed Miliband’s pledging to unleash a UK solar rooftop revolution.

So in an effort to make new homes higher quality and greener will Labour take the logical step and rein in permitted development rights in a newly minted National Planning Policy Framework that is promised imminently?

An estimated 100,000 homes have been created through permitted development since 2013 according to the Town and Country Planning Association. “The aim of these rule changes was to increase the number of new homes built, but the quality of those homes was never a consideration,” says new TCPA research. Quite. Hence we have ended up with homes in former offices on business parks, where the only place for children to play is in the car park, and where windows often open on to the roar and pollution of a six lane London artery.

Will Labour be prepared to apply stricter conditions at the risk of dialling down numbers?

All this proposed new building is being set against a backdrop of greater devolved powers to mayoral and local authorities – all desperate to meet housing targets.

Back in 2000, the housing minister of the day, Nick Raynsford, called for an end to the “tawdry little boxes” – uninspiring identikit estates on the edge of towns. Let’s hope Matthew Pennycook, his successor both as MP in the London Borough of Greenwich and now as housing minister sets a high bar and oversees a housebuilding renaissance we can all be proud of.

Denise Chevin is a writer and policy advisor in the built environment, utilities and technology. She is the former editor of Building and Housing Today