Ian McDermott has become chair of the G15 which partnered with Housing Today on the State of the Capital report
Peabody boss Ian McDermott has echoed Housing Today’s calls for social housing to be classed as infrastructure as he takes his seat as chair of the G15 group of London housing associations.
The chair of the UK’s second-largest housing association said that social housing should be reclassified to allow chancellor Rachel Reeves to commit extra funds to it without breaking her fiscal rules.
“For too long, social housing has been seen as a subsidy and a cost rather than an asset and critical national infrastructure for the country,” McDermott told The Guardian.
He added: “The social case is unarguable. It’s national infrastructure because if you look at what makes contented, thriving communities, at the core of those things is decent housing.
”And unless you recognise it as an essential element to a productive Britain and a thriving Britain and a contented Britain, then actually you’re going to miss the point.”
>>See also: Housing Today and G15 State of the Capital report
In March, Housing Today and G15’s inaugural State of the Capital report recommended a reclassification of social housing by the Treasury, to class it as infrastructure.
McDermott’s remarks, which come as he takes over the chairship of G15, an organisation representing the biggest social landlords in the UK capital, echo the report written by Housing Today editor Carl Brown.
The Peabody boss also warned that the vast majority (90%) of spending on social housing was on subsidies and temporary accommodation, rather than on building and development – a state of affairs that is the reverse of what it was in the 1970s.
Last month, the G15 warned that urgent action was needed to tackle capital’s “acute” housing crisis, after it found its members’ development project starts fell 66% in two years.
Peabody is one of the largest housing associations in the UK, managing more than 100,000 homes.
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