London’s recent local elections saw shifts in political representation across the capital, with housing widely considered a key factor in how many people voted.
New councillors are now getting to grips with their responsibilities, and housing is expected to be a central policy area for those seeking to make a meaningful difference in their communities.
London is one of the richest cities on the planet, yet its housing map is one of stark contrast, with extreme deprivation existing alongside extraordinary wealth.
Andy Hulme, who leads one of the country’s largest providers and builders of social homes, is calling for solutions drawn from across the political and economic spectrum.
While support for more social housing is welcome, Hulme warns that dismissing the private sector risks cutting off a critical route needed to deliver those very homes.
“The truth is, we need both public and private money if we’re going to make any sort of dent in London’s housing crisis,” he writes, adding there is no single panacea.
Having spent two decades heading up commercial property and mortgage lending at Lloyds before leading a charitable organisation managing over 130,000 homes, Hulme says neither sector can resolve the crisis alone.
His first principle is depoliticising housing, arguing it is a multi-generational challenge that exceeds the lifespan of any government, much like healthcare or the environment.
He argues that electioneering, false promises and damaging policy shake investor confidence and undermine the long-term commitment needed to deliver homes at scale.
On the private sector, Hulme is direct, warning that demonising those who need to make a profit is a zero-sum game that will never move the needle on supply.
He points to one leading FTSE 100 company that delivers around one in ten of London’s new private and affordable homes and committed roughly £580m in subsidies for affordable housing and infrastructure last year alone.
Hulme also stresses the need for honesty about the costs and benefits of social housing, noting recent analysis has laid bare the public subsidy required to make it viable, driven by higher building costs and spiralling regulation.
The financial case for upfront investment is stark, with London councils spending over £5m every day on temporary accommodation while the government is on track to pay £73bn in housing benefit to private landlords between 2024/25 and 2028/29.
That figure is more than six times what the government is investing in affordable homes over the same period, while the NHS spends £1.1bn each year treating illness caused by non-decent housing.
“Up-front investment in new social housing is not a cost. It’s a saving the Treasury keeps refusing to bank,” Hulme writes.
He welcomes a recent funding settlement for the social housing sector as a significant milestone, offering ten years of certainty after a prolonged period of uncertainty that undermined the sector’s planning ability.
However, growing landlord responsibilities around environmental upgrades, energy efficiency and fire safety are making it increasingly difficult to deliver additional housing on top of existing commitments.
Hulme sees a growing opportunity in partnering with pension fund investors, pointing to the organisation’s existing work with Legal and General as an example of the model in action.
UK pension funds currently allocate around three per cent of portfolios to real estate, against roughly eight per cent in the United States, with the Mansion House Accord committing the largest UK providers to a ten per cent private-markets floor by 2030.
He argues that even a modest reallocation toward UK housing would dwarf the affordable homes programme several times over, describing it as “real, patient capital looking for a home.”
Hulme also pushes back against siloed thinking, arguing that social housing, private rent, build-to-rent, student housing and later living should sit side by side, noting that none of his customers think of their home as a tenure category.
Andy Hulme is Group CEO of The Hyde Group, which owns or manages over 130,000 homes across the UK.