Affordable housing targets exceeded by combined authority

Residential schemes receiving investment from the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) must make a minimum 20 per cent of the new homes affordable, but new analysis has shown that developers working with the WMCA have gone further in helping to drive up the number.

Of the 6,285 homes unlocked by WMCA investments since 2018, a total of 2,045 are affordable.

To help tackle the issue of rising housing prices, the WMCA is now set to use fresh powers secured from government in its recent Deeper Devolution Deal to deliver more affordable homes, focused primarily on former industrial sites, often called brownfield land.

Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands and WMCA Chair, joined Stuart Penn, regional managing director of Lovell Partnerships and Gary Fulford, chief executive of local housing association whg, to meet residents who have benefited from affordable housing policies at the Lockside development in Walsall.

Alongside investment from Homes England’s Affordable Housing Programme, the WMCA invested over £4 million into the £44 million development which will see 252 homes built on the site of the former Caparo steel works.

Mr Street said: “Delivering affordable, high quality, homes for local people is a key priority for our region and these figures underline that this is something we’ve got a good track record in so far.

“Each and every scheme that the WMCA has put money into either meets or exceeds our 20% affordable housing requirement – with many of the schemes now using our own definition of affordable which is linked to actual local wages rather than property prices.

“These latest figures also show that many developers working with us, like Lovell, share our vision for good quality, energy efficient and affordable housing - enabling local people to meet their property aspirations at the same time as reducing our region’s carbon footprint.

“However, there’s always more to be done and now as thanks to the Deeper Devolution Deal we signed with government back in March, we’ll be able to do more good work in this field after securing up to £500m in new funds to support housing and regeneration projects.

“The new powers and funding we secured in the Deeper Devolution Deal also give our region much more direction over how we deliver the homes that local people and local communities quite rightly expect. So, we will continue to work hard on that mission.”

Lovell are currently halfway through completion of the development.

In total, a selection of one, two, three and four-bedroom homes will be available, of which 132 are available for open market sale through Lovell Homes while whg is taking on 120 affordable homes including 70 for affordable rent and shared ownership and 50 apartments under a wellbeing scheme for the over 55s.

Stuart Penn, regional managing director at Lovell, said: “The successful delivery of affordable homes in the region reflects the successful partnership between Lovell and WMCA in collaboration with long term investor and landlord whg and proves that this form of collaboration is essential in tackling key issues.

“Through our combined efforts, we will continue to deliver homes in sustainable, well-connected neighbourhoods as well as creating places where people want to live, close to critical infrastructure.”

It is the first development for joint venture developer Anthem Lovell LLP, a partnership between Lovell and Anthem Homes, a subsidiary of whg.

The WMCA became the first region in the UK to introduce its own localised definition of affordable housing, linking it to the real-world incomes of people in the area rather than to local house prices. The definition is based on local people paying no more than 35% of their salary on mortgages or rent.

The WMCA’s Housing & Land Investment Programme has also seen tens of millions of pounds invested in commercial space which is expected to create thousands of new jobs.

Gary Fulford, chief executive at whg, said: “As the cost-of-living hits, more people than ever need affordable, good quality homes.

"Place-making on land with former industrial uses, such as Lockside, are helping to address that demand, by delivering hundreds of new homes that cater for the different needs of residents, at different stages of life.

“Lockside is just one of 26 sites across the Midlands, where we are currently building affordable homes, with the aim of delivering more than 700 new homes in 2023/24.

"We have only been able to achieve this with the support of our partners such as WMCA and Lovell, and we look forward to working with them again in the future.”