Today, Paul once again talks to David Hughes of Fuse Architects. This time they discuss temporary planning permission for modular housing units. David explains how using this approach would enable families who are often living together in a tiny B&B room to be properly housed in just 6 months. He also talks about why it makes financial sense for councils to use this method to increase housing stock in their area.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• In the UK, 117,000 households are living in temporary accommodation.

• London councils spend £114m a month on stop-gap accommodation.

• A significant % of people are housed in sub-standard accommodation e.g., hotel rooms of just 16.5 sq. meters, at a time when you can´t build a one-bed flat of less than 50 sq. meters.

• Building social housing currently takes 4 to 5 years.

• If the houses are only temporary, many of the costly and time-consuming reports that are currently needed would not be necessary.

• High building material inflation means that projects that were viable when plans were drawn up, become impossible to build because of finances.

• Sites that are going to be sitting empty for years, e.g. stalled sites, can easily have modular housing put on them.

• Modular housing can be leased to councils and are available for use in just 6 months.

• Modular housing can be craned away and used elsewhere.

• Using temporary planning permission can turn a site that is currently not financially viable into homes and generate income for the owner.

BEST MOMENTS

“Nationwide, there´s 117,000 households in temporary accommodation.”

“Greenwich spent £8.8 million last year on Travelodge.”

“So huge amount of reports. I read the other day that there was a planning report done on the speed of a cricket ball.”

“There is no advantage to getting planning permission for 100% affordable housing.”

“Because it is temporary planning permission, the hope is it will go through much quicker.”

“When local authorities want to make stuff happen, it happens.”

GUEST RESOURCES

https://www.fusearchitects.co.uk

Previous Dave Hughes episode -https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dave-hughes-the-developers-architect-design-grounded/id1750859336?i=1000676721440

ABOUT THE HOST 

Paul Higgs is a Chartered Planning and Development Surveyor with 40+ years' experience in land, planning and development and a 100% success track record in winning planning consents.

Paul undertook his first refurb project when he was just 17 and then worked his way up from labouring on building sites to becoming Head of Land for renowned plc housebuilder, Barratt Developments. He managed to escape the corporate world in 2002 to set up what is now a multimillion-pound award-winning property development company, Millbank Group. 

In 2013 Paul founded the Millbank Land Academy, the UK’s first training company dedicated to property development; to teach established and aspiring developers the insider secrets the big housebuilders don’t want you to know! 

Paul is also a founding investor and former board director of the industry-leading PropTech Co, LandTech, and has lectured on Advanced Development Valuations on the MSc Property Development at London South Bank University.

CONTACT METHOD

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