Can Build-to-Rent Schemes Alleviate the Social Housing Shortage?

With social housing in limited supply, Paul Staley, Director at SDL Group, explains how build-to-rent schemes (B2R) could deliver much-needed affordable homes.

Paul Staley, Director of SDL Group

As with most issues and problems, there is often no single solution, and the housing crisis is no different. Even though some local authorities have stepped up efforts to deliver more social housing, there’s no question that demand is still outstripping supply. Local authorities should therefore be looking much wider than the traditional registered providers when it comes to the provision of affordable homes.

I suppose the big question is, what you define as affordable housing. Is it traditional social rentals and private lets, or the new breed of shared ownership, Help to Buy and increasingly B2R?

Yes, the private rental sector has a long history in the provision of low cost housing – although the sector has been blighted with problems and issues of absentee and rogue landlords, which have tainted the local authorities’ view of this sector. B2R aims to readdress this reputation through the provision of quality low cost housing professionally managed and maintained – held for the long-term by institutional investors.

SDL Property Management (previously SDL PRS and Estate Management) is working with a number of institutional investors on the provision of low to mid-density rental accommodation on the edge of major conurbations and towns. The majority of these schemes are located on brownfield sites and are designed to cater for the local market, providing a real alternative for those who would like to buy but can’t, or feel renting is the best solution for their own personal situation.

We believe the solution for local authorities is to consider and include B2R in their plans to deliver affordable accommodation across their boroughs.

Councils too must play their part by releasing land for housing and streamlining the planning application process, to make renting more affordable for those who are not in a position to buy.

It should be remembered B2R could also reduce the financial burden on local authorities, since housing associations receive Government grants, rent and, increasingly, funds from private investors.

As the Government pushes ahead with plans to extend the Right to Buy scheme, the UK’s social housing stock will only diminish further. Local authorities are unlikely to be able to plug this gap, which means we’ll need housing associations to deliver B2R schemes more than ever before.

For more details on SDL Group, visit sdlgroup.co.uk.