Reduce standards burden to build more homes says councillor

Glasgow needs thousands more homes to meet demand and deal with a housing emergency and reduce homelessness.

Ruairi Kelly, the council's convenor for housing said standards imposed on social housebuilding that are not on the private sector are holding the city back.

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Kelly proposed a motion at the SNP conference in Aberdeen to back a “whole systems approach to address all the factors which impact housebuilding”.

He said: “Building houses is not difficult,” but he added that the cost has increased in the last 6 years by around 50%.

The councillor told the conference it now costs £250,000 per social home, whereas it costs £190,000 in the private sector.

The motion stated, despite achievements, “records on housebuilding are below the level required to address the current housing emergency and far below the  levels of housing  delivered in the post-war period.”

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Kelly said: “We need to have an honest and frank conversation about what’s needed and what’s nice to have.”

The building regulations for social housing, he said, “far outstrip” those for the private sector.

While Glasgow has, he said, built more social homes than Manchester and Liverpool combined in the last five years it needs more.

Kelly added: “People in Glasgow on the housing list don’t care how many houses were built in Manchester.”

He said the main reasons for the increase in costs, like inflation, and higher material and labour costs are outwith local government controls.

But by rethinking the standards required more homes could be built and for cheaper

Kelly said: “If we accept there is a housing emergency, we need to act like there is a housing emergency. Nothing can be off the table, there can be no sacred cows.”

The SNP Conference passed his resolution which included addressing “the cost of delivering houses due to well-meaning but at times restrictive regulations”.

It also called for tax incentives around conversions and refurbs, the availability of funding for councils and the cost of financing the private sector.

Speaking to the Glasgow Times at the conference he outlined some examples of regulations that could be relaxed.

Kelly said there is a requirement for sprinkler systems in all new social homes, which adds between £5,000 and £8,000 per unit.

He said: “It was a response to Grenfell, which was a tragedy, but we don’t need to have it in back and front door homes in Easterhouse.”

Additional space standards mean that fewer homes are built on available land and he asked if building more but smaller homes would be a better response to get more people housed..

He added: “It is a choice of additional space or more homes.”