Memorandum by Northern Edge (AH 12)
Northern Edge is a partnership of four housing
associations based in the North of England. It is the only housing
association lead consortium to make it through to the finals of
the Deputy Prime Minister's Design for Manufacture Competition.
The associations involved are; Yorkshire Housing Group, Three
Rivers Housing Group, Tees Valley Housing Group and South Yorkshire
Housing Association.
1. SCOPE TO
PROMOTE GREATER
HOME OWNERSHIP
Northern Edge were announced as one of the nine
stage-two winners of the Deputy Prime Minister's £60k home
competition and the only housing association lead consortium to
make it through to the finals of the Design for Manufacture competition.
Throughout the competition, Northern Edge has embraced and produced
"excellent" Eco Homes Standards using Modern Methods
of Construction and adopted a "lower profit" ethos,
whereby members undertake to provide a greater proportion of affordable
homes for owner occupation by reinvesting profit to enable a range
of equity sharing models across the development. The combination
of producing Eco Homes which reduce fuel and cost of living bills,
together with a range of shared equity schemes lies at the heart
of truly affordable housing.
As a housing association lead partnership, Northern
Edge has benefited from participation in the 60k Home competition,
both in terms of developing a range of cost effective sustainable
modern homes and in gaining inroads into "competition"
with the traditional private sector house builders. Northern Edge
has the scope to open up major developments of mixed tenure (but
primarily housing for sale) lead by housing associations. As the
recent decision to open up SHG to private developers clearly has
the potential to bring benefits, then surely the reverse must
also apply. The development of Northern Edge's reduced profit
model shows that it can be done.
The opportunity, through the competition, to
promote Northern Edge's Low Cost Home Ownership models and ethos
which progress beyond conventional section 106 requirements has
brought with it significant interest from outside of the Design
for Manufacture competition.
It is clear that through initiatives such as
the Deputy Prime Minister's competition and the Hospital Sites
Programme, English Partnerships are in a position to encourage
development and innovative models of affordability by continuing
to work with both the housing association sector and the "traditional"
commercial housebuilders. As experts in affordable housing provision,
it is essential that the housing association sector remain involved
in the process as its members provide a natural conduit for the
transition of dominant tenure from tenant to owner-occupier.
2. THE ECONOMIC
AND SOCIAL
IMPACT OF
CURRENT HOUSE
PRICES
As housing associations, the members of Northern
Edge have direct experience and evidence of the impact on current
house prices in terms of rising demand on our waiting lists and
through allocations made through choice based lettings where we
participate in such schemes.
In parts of rural North Yorkshire in particular,
where affordability ratios developed by Wilcox and others[12]
are at their highest within the region, demand for social housing
is augmented by relative low salaries paid to key workers and
others. The sustainability of some communities is tested beyond
endurance and can fall prey to skills migration as young people
and families are forced to search elsewhere for more affordable
housing. The promotion and development of affordable housing—across
a range of tenures is at the heart of Northern Edge's business.
3. OTHER FACTORS
INFLUENCING THE
AFFORDABILITY OF
HOUSING FOR
SALE INCLUDING
CONSTRUCTION METHODS
AND FISCAL
MEASURES
Again, the Design for Manufacture competition
has helped highlight a key feature in the affordability equation.
Construction costs must be addressed if we are to continue to
offer practical solutions to the affordability crisis. By exploring
the whole gamut of Modern Methods of Construction and by adopting
lean production techniques, many of which are less reliant on
the "traditional" skills of construction, the industry
is able to circumvent the national shortage of labour skills.
4. THE SCALE
OF HOUSING
DEVELOPMENT REQUIRED
TO INFLUENCE
HOUSE PRICES
AND THE
IMPACT OF
PROMOTING SUCH
A PROGRAMME
ON THE
NATURAL AND
HISTORICAL ENVIRONMENT
AND INFRASTRUCTURE
PROVISION
It is clear that house prices, like all others,
respond directly to market characteristics. However, prices and
affordability affect individuals before they affect markets. Communities
have been suffering the consequences long before headlines and
policy statements about soaring house prices reach policy makers
and the media.
Northern Edge is pioneering an approach to affordable
for sale housing provision. Rather than concern with the scale
of housing development and its effect on prices, we are directing
attention towards the quality of housing and its effect on living
costs.
12 Wilcox, S, Can Work Can't Buy, Joseph Rowntree
Foundation, 2003. Bramley, G and Kofi Karley, N, How Much Extra
Affordable Housing is Needed in England?, Housing Studies,
Vol 20, September 2005. Back
| 
