New Stable – A Housing Report Sponsored by Local Partnerships

Launched at the House of Lords, New Stable : Shaping the Future of Affordable Housing and Growth

It was my pleasure to play a part in launching, “New Stable: Expanding and Reforming the Role of the Local Government Pension Scheme in Driving Affordable Housing.“ As a proud sponsor of this Localis led report, Local Partnerships are always delighted to support critical and timely initiatives that address one of the most pressing issues facing our nation today: the housing crisis.

The report offers a comprehensive and an in-depth analysis of how the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) can be leveraged to drive investment in affordable housing. The report highlights the no brainer potential for LGPS to become a significant source of patient capital, ultimately contributing to both social prosperity and national economic growth.

The Importance of Affordable Housing

A Transformational Moment for Local Government

We all know affordable housing is not just a social necessity; it is a cornerstone of economic stability and longer-term growth. And we all know that a chronic under-supply of genuinely affordable homes, has had and will continue to have far-reaching implications for our communities and our wider economy, both directly and indirectly. Undersupply exacerbates social inequalities, strains public services, and ultimately hampers local economic development.

Role of LGPS in Addressing the Housing Crisis

But the LGPS, with its substantial assets and surplus, presents a unique opportunity to address the crisis. The report outlines how LGPS funds can be strategically invested in affordable housing projects, providing stable, inflation-linked returns while fulfilling fiduciary duties. This approach aligns with the long-term investment characteristics of pension schemes and the government’s growth agenda overall.

Recommendations and Strategic Actions

The report makes several key recommendations to maximize the impact of LGPS investments in affordable housing. Key highlights for me include:

1. Exploring the potential Reclassification of Social Housing as significant national infrastructure to unlock more capital funding.
2. Looking at mandating a proportion of savings made from contribution reductions (where applicable) as a revenue contribution to capital expenditure
3. Creating long-term financing deals to address the capital backlogs in local authority HRAs and Housing Associations.
4. Joint Ventures and new kinds of Partnerships are key for a collaborative and mutually beneficial future, that is, encouraging collaboration between local authorities, housing associations, LGPS pools, and other stakeholders to share risk & reward and expertise.
5. Capacity building is vital: Investing in local authority skillset and capacity to manage and deliver housing projects effectively, efficiently and at appropriate scale.
6. The need to create credible and scalable pipelines of social and genuinely affordable housing projects that not only meet investment criteria but crucially ones align with statutory local growth plans and spatial strategies produced by strategic authorities.

Local Partnerships’ Role

We at Local Partnerships are committed to providing the capacity and capability services necessary to support these recommendations, hence we were delighted to be involved in the report. We offer expertise in:

• Business case preparation and support, that is, working directly with local authorities and wider ecosystem stakeholders to make models to build work.
• We can provide support for the development of long-term financing arrangements for local authorities and housing associations.
• We can engage in Partnership Facilitation: that is, supporting the creation and management of joint ventures and partnerships to leverage collective expertise and resources.
• We work with local authorities to enhance capabilities through training and strategic support, whether business case, project management, technical advisory or strategic stakeholder management
• And we can support with Pipeline Development: That is, helping MCAs, CAs, Strategic Authorities and housing associations create credible and scalable housing project pipelines aligned with geographic development plans, including unlocking stalled sites.

Conclusion

More than anything, I think we can view this report as a bit of a call to action for new and multiple stakeholders to collaborate, innovate, and invest in the future of our communities using LGPS as a key vehicle for creating a stable and prosperous society at scale and for a long-term vision  where all those who need it have access to safe, affordable housing.

My thanks to Localis, Isio and colleagues at Local Partnerships for everyone’s hard work on this report.  Here’s to driving positive change and to harnessing the potential of the LGPS for the greater good!