University looks to develop PRS homes for staff and post-graduates

The University of Hertfordshire is considering building homes for staff and post-graduates because homes in the local area are too expensive.

Speaking at our event in Hertfordshire the Director of Estates at the university – Ian Grimes – said the faculty was looking to address the consequences of unaffordable homes in the region.

He said: “One of the biggest problems is that our graduates, academic and professionals’ staff can’t afford to live in Hertfordshire, so our staff are driving and adding to the car problem from places like Bedford and Sandy. They are looking to places where they can afford to live which is a real issue for us. Something we are starting to look at is can we encourage them to live within the locality we are in.”

“London is a sponge for graduates, Bedfordshire seems to be a sponge for out staff as they seek cheaper houses and places to live and we feel we are a little bit stuck in the middle of that.”

According to Mr Grimes the university could look at the way the University of Cambridge provided accommodation for its staff due to similar housing cost pressures. He added that revenues from rents would help: “One of our peak drivers is revenue stream, so if we were to hold a large stock of accommodation for staff on a PRS basis that’s good revenue and it would be sustainable by paying for itself.”

Housing affordability is a key issue for Hertfordshire with the county expected to double the number of homes it builds per year to 5,000 as part of a large house building programme over the coming decade.

Patsy Dell, Assistant Director for Strategic Planning, Infrastructure and Economy at Hertfordshire County Council, noted that the average house price in the county was £450,000, up to twelve times the affordability ratio and beyond the reach of many key workers

She said: “We need another 100,000 homes, which is a significant uplift which Hertfordshire has been planning for and delivering previously, as well as similar number of jobs. It’s not just the county council, we are also reliant on partners and though we have a housing company we build very little houses ourselves. For us it is about protecting the quality of life in Hertfordshire.”

Hertfordshire County Council produced a report in February which outlined the cost of building the new infrastructure to accommodate any new homes at approximately £6bn, with over half of that figure requiring funding.

Ms Dell noted that the funding figure was a challenge: “Just under £3bn has funding sources known, but £3bn is currently unfunded. That works out at £68k per house – to achieve CIL (Community Infrastructure Levy) or S106 contributions to pay for that infrastructure – we are not achieving anywhere near that and we may not.”

The council has plans to apply to the Government’s Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) to gain funds for some of the new infrastructure, Ms Dell adds: “If we are successful with our HIF funding, we will be tied into a delivery rate. The annualised housing delivery figures has to double to over 5,000 a year – we aren’t going to do that if we are reliant on mainstream house building in the general market – we won’t be able to get those numbers in Hertfordshire not just the country.”

To address the issue the council has formed the Hertfordshire Growth Board, which has seen 11 councils and the local enterprise partnership co-ordinate plans. The aim, according to Ms Dell is to have “one voice for central government” to help pay for the transport and other infrastructure including up to 40 new schools which may have to be built.

One of the key housing projects for the county is the vast 10,000 home Gilston Park Estate near Harlow. The project is being overseen by housing association Places for People, which is looking to act as master developer for the site, which will form a new town on the outskirts of the existing Harlow.

Paul Mumford, Strategic Project Director at Places for People, says that the association aims to include as much modern method of construction homes and self-build and custom-build within its scheme as possible.

He said: “We aim to include as much as we can. We are not at the point yet where we know the proportion of housing which is done on site or offsite, we have a lot of land and have a JV with Urban Splash, so as a group we have the capacity to build things ourselves and are encouraged by planning policy to do things in different ways.

We have a site up near Newcastle near North Shields which was constructed off-site and craned into place, that was 200 units. We have the expertise and need clever thinking, but if you take the overall government’s target of 300,000 homes a year you simply can’t do that they way we have done things before.”