Scotland’s Housing - More than just numbers
Scotland’s Housing: More Than Just Numbers was a Conference held in Edinburgh on 22 May 2019, organised by Gaia Research and SEDA, with support from Sam Foster Architects, Stewart and Shields, Architype, and the Ecology Building Society
This conference aimed to begin a debate by looking at examples of urban and suburban housing that are successful in environmental and financial terms, and meets the needs of individuals and, importantly, society as a whole. The projects discussed, from the UK and Europe, included Mutual Home ownership, co-operatives, co-housing and public sector facilitated procurement. The selection was intended to identify a wide range of options and alternatives to the current Scottish model dominated by volume house building, rather than to identify a single solution.
The examples shown all demonstrated local involvement, affordability and a commitment to high quality in environmental and social terms. They also demonstrate a wide range of options in terms of life style choice all with low dependence on resource use including high impact travel.
The speakers included: Prof. Sandy Halliday, Ian Cooke of the Development Trust Association Scotland, Craig White of Agile Property, Jonathan Hines of Architype, Paul Chatterton and Liz Lewis of LILAC housing Leeds, John Kinsley Architect, Guy Harris of MedYG and Sam Foster Architect
Scotland’s Housing: Speakers summary video (2 mins)
Scotland’s Housing: Speakers summary video (8 mins)
Scotland’s Eco City
Scotland’s Housing: Summary of Conference outcomes
Scotland’s Housing: Full Report of Conference Outcomes
Scotland’s Housing: Manifesto
Housing provision in Scotland is failing to keep pace with demand
New housing, commissioned to conform to plans and regulations, is largely unaffordable, ill-equipped for climate resilience or demographic change, often in the wrong place, without local facilities, eating up valuable green space and creating further dependence on increasingly outmoded forms of transport. The problems are very significant in both urban and rural contexts and yet it is unclear who should be held accountable.
As a consequence of these concerns the Scottish Government is undertaking a consultation “Housing to 2040” - previously called Housing Beyond 2021 - to address concerns and opportunities “for housing to make greater links with other policy areas, such as, economy, social security, health & social care, education and transport, to improve outcomes for communities, reduce inequalities and support the prevention agenda.”
The discussions at the conference focused around three syndicates:
(a) The design qualities that we might expect from housing to meet 21st / 22ndC requirements for healthy, accessible, resource efficient, socially integrated, placemaking;
(b) The financial mechanisms that might offer alternatives to the dominant and evidently unsustainable model of volume building;
(c) The organizational options that might enable personal involvement and procurement in line with meeting the social and economic goals
The resulting action plan is based on the outcomes from the syndicate discussions. To summarise the outcomes is difficult but it is clear that we need to:
• Hold to account those who are failing in government and the professions to provide sufficient, affordable, future proofed housing;
• Inform everyone involved of the wide range of tried and tested alternatives to our current failing model of housing provision;
• Raise expectations, standards and enforcement to levels that will make Scotland’s housing resilient to demographic and environmental changes and hence appropriate for the future;
• Inform everyone involved of the potential social, environmental and financial benefits of alternative models for communities;
• Move towards a diverse affordable housing delivery platform that meets real social and environmental needs.
In summary, the existing housing model is failing and will, if allowed to, undermine the social and environmental framework of Scotland for generations to come. Change is required and it is wholly possible. It requires a better-informed government, public sector and clients. The conference was a step towards communicating that there are very real alternatives and that delivering on these alternatives would contribute to making Scotland’s housing part of a sustainable future. However, alternatives models are in a weak position. There is an extraordinary dominance of a purely numbers-led agenda by a very small group of providers. Our regulations are inadequate. There is too much underuse of existing buildings. Finance availability is largely directed to a tiny product (vanilla) range, which is unsuitable for many, although other models exist.
The event was timely and, along with other events on similar themes, has generated a lot of discussion. We have provided a resources section with links to events, films and papers, which make an ongoing contribution to creating much needed change.
The proposed next steps are:
• A follow up event to further discuss targets, finance and modes of organization;
• Circulation of the manifesto to the support of professional, client and government signatories;
• A pilot ‘Urban Housing Fair’ to include new models of housing provision, finance options and performance standards based on societal health and well being, the circular economy and one-planet living.
Further resources:
Kalkbreite.. (6 mins)
Tubingen... (18 mins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSfFF0Lx4cw
Children’s Eco-City 1996 (6 mins)
Halliday S.P 2018 Sustainable Construction 2nd edition Routledge
from your local bookshop or there are plenty of options on line
(make sure it’s the 2nd edition)
Sustainable Construction 2nd edition description (3 mins)