Marking World Homelessness Day, Chair of the Berkeley Foundation and Chief Operating Officer at Berkeley Group Piers Clanford shares his view on the need to tackle the housing shortage and improve support for those in greatest need.
“On the steps of Downing Street last month, Andy Burnham said his first instruction as Prime Minister would be to end rough sleeping in this country. Incoming premiers usually reach for growth, or the health service as top priorities. That this one chose the sharpest edge of the housing crisis deserves credit and, from those of us who build homes for a living, practical support.
The scale of the task is daunting. A record 4,793 people were counted sleeping rough on a single night in England last autumn. Yet visible rough sleeping is only the tip of a larger iceberg: young people moving between friends' sofas week by week; the 177,530 children growing up in temporary accommodation as of March this year, a thirteenth consecutive record high; working households one missed pay cheque from arrears. Ending rough sleeping and ending homelessness are not the same undertaking, and the second is even harder.
Given how many routes there are into homelessness, no single intervention will close them all. But one cause is unambiguous. Britain, and Britain's most successful cities in particular, is desperately short of housing of every kind: homes to rent, homes to buy, and the social and affordable homes that councils can allocate on the basis of need. Average private rents hit a record £1,393 a month in July, and £2,317 in London.
Each tenure relieves pressure on the others. Homes for sale allow households to move on and free up rented property. Homes built for rent take the heat out of rents directly. Shared ownership offers the security of owner-occupation to people who would otherwise rent indefinitely, and every social rent home is a durable asset for a council trying to house those in greatest need.
Another important point is that private homebuilding helps to fund and deliver new affordable and social rent homes. This is why Berkeley, as London’s largest private homebuilder, is also the largest affordable homebuilder in the city. The challenge is that the supply of new private, affordable and social rent homes are all far too low. Which is why the Government’s commitments to build 1.5 million homes this parliament, alongside the ambition for the largest council housebuilding programme in decades, are both vital to the rough sleeping mission.
However, housing supply alone will not solve homelessness. Many people have needs that no tenancy, by itself, will meet. Through the Berkeley Foundation we support charities tackling these challenges.
We have partnered with Money Ready since 2017, who focus on giving young people, including care leavers, the financial skills to live independently - people who lack the family safety net most of us take for granted, and for whom one missed bill can begin a slide towards homelessness.
To mark World Homelessness Day on 10th October, Money Ready will be launching persuasive new research calling for enhanced financial education as a key homelessness prevention tool.
Another instructive example is in Brent, where our partner Crisis works with the council on its Built for Zero programme to end rough sleeping in the borough. This place-based programme enables charities and the public sector to collaborate and flex the system to meet the individual needs of homeless people. The results are compelling, with one recent 90-day trial bringing eleven long-term rough sleepers off the street, including one who had been sleeping rough non-stop for five years.
Other leading charities include New Horizon Youth Centre, which provides specialist wraparound support for young people who are rough sleeping or experiencing homelessness in London. And in Birmingham, St Basils works with 16 to 25-year-olds as both a charity and housing association, offering support alongside a roof.
These programmes are hugely impactful and promising, and will be even more effective if combined with the increase in housing supply Government is targeting. We need to build more homes of every tenure, while giving the services that catch people the funds and freedom to act. There is no silver bullet, but bold and widespread interventions can have lasting effects.
We look forward to supporting the government in delivering its mission to build 1.5 million homes, and to partnering with exceptional homelessness charities making a real difference on the front line.”
Piers Clanford is Chair of the Berkeley Foundation and Chief Operating Officer at Berkeley Group