They were reacting to housing minister Lord Falconer's announcement that the government plans to release publicly owned land to provide modular affordable homes for key workers.
National Housing Federation policy officer Liz Willis said: "The choice of build method is less important in high demand areas than economical access to land.
"We would like to see more affordable homes and mixed communities delivered if the public sector landholders were required to pass free land directly to RSLs or community partnerships rather than private developers."
According to the federation, there is a backlog of 100,000 public sector workers looking for homes in London and the south east. There has also been a drop in the number of new homes being built.
Industry observers commented Falconer appeared to be "making up policy on the hoof" in his comments, and predicted problems with the idea.
Donald Hoodless, chief executive of Circle 33 Housing Trust, said: "Given the overwhelming shortage of housing in London, any short-term measure would be welcome.
"But if there is so much government land available, why hasn't it been released sooner? I think that the minister for housing sometimes forgets that he is also the minister for planning. Any long-term solutions have to come through the planning system."
Gwyneth Taylor, housing programme manager at the Local Government Association, said: "Local authorities don't have spare land. However, there are large amounts of central government land such as Ministry of Defence and NHS land, but getting land from government agencies is notoriously difficult."
A House Builders Federation spokesman urged politicians to look at using brownfield sites for permanent housing, rather than opting for "temporary solutions" such as prefabs.
He said: "Instead of putting money into temporary solutions, cash could be better spent subsidising financially unviable brownfield sites which could be used to provide the housing needed.
"We have to question whether prefabs are the answer. At the moment this is more expensive than traditionally built housing, though economies of scale might eventually shift the balance.
"Ultimately we need a long-term solution to a long-term problem and that is the sufficient provision of homes for key workers."
Richard Donnell, director at property services firm FPDSavills, warned: "You can easily have sub-market and market rented properties running side by side.
"The question is whether or not RSLs are happy to see land being given away for free to provide for key workers, which they could have used for affordable housing."
Professional opinion
Eleanor Young, policy advisor on planning to London mayor Ken Livingstone:“If this is a question of using brownfield land to provide key worker housing then we welcome that. However, I don’t think we could rely entirely on prefabs. We’ve also got to get permanent houses and flats built. We have to think about the quality [of the modular homes], to avoid the problem of obsolete housing in 10 to 15 years time.” Christine Whitehead, professor of housing economics at the London School of Economics:
“There are already a lot of 50-60 storey hotels built like this in the Middle East and America. We ought to be thinking about building in this way, as you can build homes like the terraced houses we are all used to. We need to address the question of getting more public land used for housing.” John Barker, chief executive of Moat Housing Group:
“It’s good to see new thinking on housing and planning issues coming from the government. The minister must now equip housing associations with the investment and opportunity to make this happen.” Richard McCarthy, chief executive of Peabody Trust:
“[Modular housing] is not Legoland and can be a very attractive addition to local architecture.”
Source
Housing Today
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