Experts call for new housing advice quango

A panel of senior developers, academics and social landlords has urged the government to set up a committee to provide it with independent advice in a bid to solve the housing crisis.

The group said a body should be set up with a minimum 12-year life, working in the same way as the Migration Advisory Committee and the Committee on Climate Change as an authority on housing issues. It would evaluate possible solutions and champion policy change.

The idea is the main recommendation of a year-long collaboration between developers including Argent, Berkeley Group, and Clarion and academics from the Bartlett School of Architecture, the London School and Economics, Oxford University and the Said Business School.

The body would provide a menu of options from which the government could attempt to meet policy goals, such as increasing home ownership or reducing affordability problems.

The group forecast that such a body, permanently staffed, would cost between up to £10m a year. It is estimated that the annual cost of tackling the crisis itself could be £100bn.

Peter Freeman, founder of developer and co-sponsor Argent, said: “Meeting government housing targets will require £2 trillion spent on new developments over the next 20 years. Spent without careful thought and consultation, that money will only continue to fuel the arguments that have dogged our housing policy for decades.”

Former prime minister Gordon Brown oversaw the setting up of the National Housing and Planning Advisory Unit – the closest the UK has come to such a body – which provided advice on housing numbers and economic impacts of different policies. The body was disbanded in David Cameron’s “bonfire of the quangos” in 2010.

Other recommendations by the pan-industry collaboration include:

• Local authorities to lead the intensification of suburban areas within a kilometre of a town centre or train station
• Compulsory purchase orders to be used more frequently to support important housing developments such as the Oxford to Cambridge corridor
• The development of green belt land in limited circumstances such as where close to railway stations, or for the building of eco-homes

Professor Andrew Baum, head of the Oxford Future of Real Estate Initiative at Saïd Business School, said: “Huge amounts of research, thoughtful analysis and time have  been spent addressing the housing crisis, but the country has lacked a consistent body with the skills and status to curate and assess this information for government.