“one of the worst housing crises in the democratic world”
Jacob Rees-Mogg, Leader of the House of Commons
All the major actors in the UK housing market; The Government, Local Authorities (LA), Housing Associations (HA), the Church, developers and constructors acknowledge that the market is in crisis. They do not have a solution to the problem.
Kingdom Living (‘Kingdom’) with the support of a large financial institution will catalyse all these major actors to work with Kingdom to solve the problem by building truly affordable housing communities.
The Problem: There are 300,000 homeless people in the UK (including 210,000 children). There is an immediate shortage of c1.2m affordable homes and 4m people are living in substandard, inappropriate accommodation. There is a need to build 2.5m affordable homes over the next ten years.
The causes of the problem: The big sell off: In 1980 33% of total housing stock (6m council houses) was rented at truly affordable rents. Since then 2m council houses have been sold under ‘Right to buy’ and a further 2m have been taken out of circulation. The 2m extant council houses plus the 3m HA houses represent only 17% of current UK housing stock.
Unaffordable rents: Council house rents have increased 1,066% between 1980-2017 versus 293% general inflation over the same period.
Private market rentals (priced in correlation to house prices at around seven times average annual salaries) are not affordable for low/average income earners.
Historic Government mismanagement: Massive underinvestment in housebuilding by successive Governments has reduced the 2019 housebuilding rate to 50% of the 1969 rate resulting in a total current housing deficit of 3.2m homes.
A risible 9,460 ‘Social’ homes were completed in 2019.
Kingdom’s solution: Kingdom with the support of a major financial institution will galvanise all the major actors to work with Kingdom to implement its solution of building affordable housing communities where renters and purchasers alike will have security of tenure and freedom from stigma.
Affordability will be driven by the elimination of the developers’ profit plus in most cases the contribution of the land at a substantial discount.
Kingdom, a not for profit Christian CIO, will build affordable developments (ideally 30% for social rent, 70% for social purchase) where the units are leased by the relevant Local Authority on a 40-year lease at Local Housing Authority (LHA) housing rates.
Kingdom’s Transferable Home Equity Payment Plan (THEPP) will enable low/average income families progressively to purchase their properties over a 40-year period without the need for a deposit or mortgage.
Building communities: Kingdom will use its surplus funds to build communities through a Social Support Fund (SSF) with a remit to ‘socially educate’ residents, rebuild social cohesion and extirpate Council House stigma.
Kingdom will host multi-ethnic facilities including legal, social and community support services together with pre-school and youth clubs. Kingdom will procure the participation of the Church, Local Authorities, Housing Association and local businesses in the creation and flourishing of these communities.
The Management Team: The founders of Kingdom; Peter Moss, Barry Goddard, Peter Courtenay, Chris Moss and Glynn Reece collectively have substantial experience in successful corporate and business entities in various sectors including finance, technology, risk management and engineering. The team also has considerable experience in real estate and charitable work centred on the homeless and vulnerable.
Structure: Kingdom is structured as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). Kingdom envisages that it will establish a local partnership Community Interest Company (CIC) for each of its developments.