What Will New Communities Secretary Greg Clark Mean For Uk Housing Policy?

By Author: Bradley Weiss
Total Articles: 272
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The new head of the Department for Communities and Local Government authored the Localism Act, which should please land investors, homebuilders and homebuyers.



Shortly after the May 2015 election, Prime Minister David Cameron announced that Communities Secretary Eric Pickles would be replaced by Tunbridge Wells MP Greg Clark. This provides much to cheer for among investors who seek a UK land investment as Clark has long spoke of the need to release more land for homebuilding.



Indeed, in an official press release from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), Mr. Clark and MP Brandon Lewis asked all Whitehall departments to “let go of surplus and redundant land and property for new homes - and for town halls to follow suit.” The statement from the new DCLG head urged England’s 326 councils to look at their own land assets and consider selling these public sector lands to private developers such as property fund management ...
... organisations. By Clark’s reasoning, public sector land alone could provide 150,000 new homes by the year 2020.



This isn’t terribly surprising, given how Clark is largely credited as the architect of the Localism Act of 2011. This fundamentally altered how land is approved for use changes, now determined by local planning authorities instead of regional planners who held this power prior to the Act. Now investors engaged in a joint venture land opportunity fund can be much closer to the land and the local authorities making decisions to add homes to a community. The devolution of authority is ultimately designed to help alleviate the country’s housing shortage.



What other evidence do investors and managers of property funds have of Clark’s commitment to building more houses at a faster rate? Consider Clark’s statements in the past few years, prior to his current appointment:



• “To be against new buildings and new infrastructure is to be against growth, which is in turn to be in favour of people becoming poorer than they are today - something that should be unconscionable to anyone with a concern for the wellbeing of their fellow man.”



• “We need more houses: for young people; for families; and for older people living - thankfully - longer than they ever have before. It may be convenient to imagine that our population is stable or shrinking, but this is just plain wrong - the fact is that our population is growing.”



• “To fail to provide the houses we need is to condemn today's young people and their children to overcrowding, homelessness and poverty driven by soaring rents and house prices. No progressive should have any truck with a course of such cynical selfishness.”



Indeed, in a May 2015 opinion piece published in the Daily Telegraph ("Why we want to hand power to local people") - a newspaper that has long championed the preservation of green countryside against development - Clark went so far as to say that an overbearing central government in the UK is at fault for the country’s London-centrism. The result, says Clark, is “our cities have lost the ability to thrive along the way…our great industrial metropolises have underperformed.” He contrasts England with Germany, France and Italy, where economic output and populations of non-capital cities are more robust and distributed than in the UK.



What that means is those joint ventures focused on land have more opportunities than ever before to work in partnership with local councils. Their shared mission is to increase the vibrancy of the local economy by providing homes that make living there affordable (the housing crisis hits hardest in central London and the rural areas, ironically enough).



Smart property fund management suggests that investors work closely with local council authorities to identify all types of land that might be suitable for development. This includes surplus public sector land, greenfield, brownfield and all other sources of redundant land. From his statements, it seems Secretary Clark is behind this and will likely respect local needs and nuances.



Investors of any sort, joint ventures or otherwise, should always consult with an independent financial advisor before taking a position in real estate, land or other asset classes.