Columnist

Procurement can boost mayor’s housing vision

Two seismic events with massive implications for the North East have occurred in the last 15 months.

The first was the election of North East mayor Kim McGuinness, with the second being the North East Combined Authority and Homes England's signing of a strategic place partnership to help the region realise its housing ambitions.

Work and homes are the bedrock of any community, and key to the new mayor’s vision that the North East becomes “a trailblazer for the UK’s economic success”.

However, while the ten-year plan embraces aspiration, focusing on clear industrial sectors and goals, I would argue the bigger challenge lies in tackling the burgeoning crisis of housing – or lack of it – across the region.

The charity Shelter has warned the North East is facing a “housing emergency”, and the figures back that up.

The number of households on social housing waiting lists across the North East has hit its highest level since 2012, says Shelter, rising from 50,453 in 2022 to 75,985 in 2023. 

That is an increase of nearly 51 per cent and far higher than anywhere else in England.

For the mayor’s ambitions to succeed, there needs to be structure, trust, process and professional guidance – something frameworks provide. 

I understand this better than most, given my present role leading the Northern arm of a national framework provider, and my professional past as a housing architect and time in a number of director/senior positions within the housebuilding industry.

Frameworks bring buyers and suppliers together to build social housing and public property more efficiently and cost effectively, and for the benefit of the local community. 

Created for local authorities, social landlords and other public sector bodies, they also help with refurbishment and retrofitting, and maintenance and decarbonisation of existing housing stock.

The North East Combined Authority’s housing and land advisory board sees a key goal as “co-ordinating existing local authority partnerships and delivery vehicles to support the delivery of key housing/regeneration sites, expanding delivery options and remits in line with emerging opportunities.”

The aspiration is certainly there. But what does that mean in practice?

There is a perception among some in the North that delivery is still limited by a Southern focus in Government policy.

What I would say is that many of the issues faced here are understood best by those in the North: the nature, type and quality of housing, our communities and history, regional developers, transport and investment. 

Policymakers must understand the different nature of the issues faced, and to do that, they must listen to Northern voices.

That is the crux of the issue. 

The North has its own challenges, its own issues and should look to its own solutions.

Framework providers embedded in the North, which understand the complexity of our wonderful region and its inspirational residents, can play their part in turning the North East mayor’s housing vision into reality.

Faye Whiteoak is Northern Procurement Alliance regional director

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