value for money assessed for housing developments? How might councils reduce the costs of and improve value for money in housing developments? In comparing the costs of local authority and private sector-led housing developments it is important to look not just at development costs, but whole of life costs, and to compare like with like. There has been relatively little local authority-led development in recent years, and much of what has been built has been built on infill and other small sites, for reasons explained above. We do not have detailed data on local authority development costs, but it seems likely that, being on smaller and perhaps difficult to access sites, they may be higher than can be achieved building at volume on larger sites with unimpeded access. However, this must be set against the fact that, in most cases, the land comes free as it is already by the local authority and held within the HRA. Local authority borrowing costs are significantly lower than those applying to private investors, and the marginal cost of managing and maintaining additional units on existing estates in likely to be low. In any case, local authority management and maintenance costs have historically been lower, on average, per unit, than those of ALMOs or housing associations, and councils continue to pursue improvements in efficiency to reduce costs and improve value for money.
value for money assessed for housing developments? How might councils reduce the costs of and improve value for money in housing developments? In comparing the costs of local authority and private sector-led housing developments it is important to look not just at development costs, but whole of life costs, and to compare like with like. There has been relatively little local authority-led development in recent years, and much of what has been built has been built on infill and other small sites, for reasons explained above. We do not have detailed data on local authority development costs, but it seems likely that, being on smaller and perhaps difficult to access sites, they may be higher than can be achieved building at volume on larger sites with unimpeded access. However, this must be set against the fact that, in most cases, the land comes free as it is already by the local authority and held within the HRA. Local authority borrowing costs are significantly lower than those applying to private investors, and the marginal cost of managing and maintaining additional units on existing estates in likely to be low. In any case, local authority management and maintenance costs have historically been lower, on average, per unit, than those of ALMOs or housing associations, and councils continue to pursue improvements in efficiency to reduce costs and improve value for money.
arch_submission_to_clg_review_of_housing_supply.docx