Housing

Reusing small empty sites of up to two hectares could more than meet the UK’s housing demand without building on green field land, according to a new report, commissioned by the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

This must be coupled with upgrading existing buildings, says the report, reclaiming and remodeling empty buildings, and converting and upgrading homes to make existing neighbourhoods attractive. Such an approach, the findings suggest, would generate local jobs but requires new skills, more training and apprenticeships.

‘Housing Futures: Our Homes and Communities’, written by professor Anne Power and Laura Lane of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at LSE, examines the four big pressures – supply and affordability of homes; environmental limits; social cohesion; and economic change – driving the future of housing policy in the UK.

Professor Anne Power, professor of social policy at LSE said: “We need to modernize our housing stock, reclaim and remodel empty buildings, fit new homes into small spaces within existing communities, and do all this with a fraction of the energy, materials and waste of the current building industry.

“This approach should generate many new jobs and skills in existing neighbourhoods; it should support training, apprenticeships and accreditation schemes; it should foster a new eco-retrofit supply chain. It will be quickly embraced by go-ahead small builders who know which side their bread is buttered on!”

Richard Diment, director-general of the FMB said: “Retrofitting is becoming an important part of any small builder’s workload but this can only increase if SMEs can demonstrate the value and skill of their work which is why the FMB is investigating the need to start its own competent person scheme.”

Visit www.fmb.co.uk