Oliver Ryan MP: Securing buy-in for new homes by raising standards and training the next generation

Oliver Ryan, Labour MP for Burnley

Some time ago I had the opportunity to spend a morning on a busy building site on Rossendale Road on the edge of my constituency of Burnley. Here 87 homes for families were under construction. I met Barratt Homes, the developer, and the National House Building Council (NHBC), which insures new homes, and redistributes any profits it makes back into the industry. Building more homes is incredibly important for the next generation, but what matters just as much to many of my constituents is building homes to the highest possible standard, that will stand the test of time.

I was interested to hear that each year NHBC carries out around one million inspections for quality assurance, attention to detail, technical expertise, health and safety, and consistency when compared to the original drawings. Developers cannot simply throw up shoddy buildings; they must subject themselves to stringent inspections before they can receive a warranty.

The need for high quality has been on my mind since last month’s announcement of the first £10 billion of the £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programme: more than 70,000 homes, the majority at genuine social rents, with almost £1 billion in the North West. After fourteen years of selling off more than we built, that is a serious answer to a serious problem. But we must build these homes to a high standard. My constituents in need of housing deserve nothing less than a safe, warm place to live and grow.

We have the money in place. Besides the funding, the challenge comes in two parts. The homes must be demonstrably good, and building them must visibly pay something back locally. Local consent is the next challenge. When new plans for housing emerge, my constituents in Burnley, Padiham, and Brierfield will ask me: what’s in it for us?

It is tempting to dismiss that as NIMBYism. That is a mistake. Opposition to housebuilding is usually not generalised opposition to new homes, but a sense that local people will not see returns, and that new homes will be of poor quality, which has sometimes been a persistent issue nationally.

The first can be ensured by independent standards and verification from organisations like NHBC. Developers cannot just assure local authorities their properties will be well built; they must be backed up by published standards, which are verified by independent inspectors. This gives people confidence. And it works: this year’s National New Homes Customer Satisfaction Survey, verified by Ipsos, found 93% of buyers would recommend their builder and 90% were happy with their home’s quality. This is the sixth year the score has been running above 90%, showing growing confidence, which will translate into greater consent for new building.

For the second half of the challenge, the honest answer to “what’s in it for us?” is jobs, apprenticeships, and training; and here the industry is ahead of government. I heard on my visit that NHBC is investing up to £100 million in twelve multi-skill training hubs which will benefit 3,000 site-ready tradespeople every year. At these hubs, apprentices train on replica sites in 14 to 18 months, instead of up to 30, so a young person being trained up at a site can do so in the knowledge that they will be working in the same conditions in which they trained. For every 10,000 homes, we need around 2,500 bricklayers, 2,500 groundworkers, and 1,000 carpenters. Needless to say, we do not have them. The sector needs 239,000 more workers by 2029.

So as we push for an increase in housebuilding, across both social housing and private development, here is my ask as we in the Labour Party gather for our annual conference in Liverpool: put skills hubs in the new town plans from day one.

When we stand up a development corporation in Leeds, Tempsford, or Manchester, a construction training hub should sit on the masterplan alongside a school and a GP surgery. At Northstowe, Homes England provided land for an NHBC training hub that trains 200 apprentices a year. This should leave a skills legacy for years to come.

The Prime Minister has rightly put social value at the heart of public procurement. It now needs to be delivered in every community with local recruitment, apprenticeships that reach care leavers and work for those who have long been without it. Money that stays in our local communities. And training that outlives the project.

Opposition parties offer nothing more than grievances about a housing crisis they have no plan to fix. We can offer better: social homes at rents people can actually pay, built to a standard someone independent will stand behind, by young people from the same town on wages that stay in it. Where you are from should never determine where you end up, and it should never determine whether the home you are offered is any good.

Next week in Liverpool we will rightly celebrate our plans for the biggest increase in social and affordable housing in a generation. Let us also commit to what will deliver it: a package of measures that ensures homes of the highest quality and skills that will serve a new generation of British construction workers. That is how you win consent, and how you keep it.