Without wishing to make any political points, it is fair to say I was happy following Rachel Reeves’ Spending Review last week.

It is natural to wish things might have gone further but her commitment to spending £39 billion on the housing sector over the next decade is a bold step.

The previous annual allocation hovered around £2.3 billion per year, so it means an uplift of over £1.5 billion a year on average.

Before I go any further, I am not a Rachel Reeves sycophant or a Labour loyalist – I believe in scrutinising power, whichever colour it wears – but I welcome this commitment.

We have a chronic social and affordable housing issue in London, and across the nation. Of course we need to see more detail, but in broad terms it seems a move in the right direction.

If we are to have any hope of addressing our alarming housing shortage, then swelling the stock of quality, affordable homes must be front and centre.

Petermans Housing Initiative (PHI) is the social and affordable housing arm of our 60-year-old family-run business, Petermans Estate Agents.

Stark

PHI was born out of a stark realisation: there is a growing group of people who earn too much to qualify for traditional social housing, but yet not enough to cope with the escalating costs of private rents.

We call it the ‘missing middle’. We simply see it as a moral failure of our housing system that we have not yet built effective bridges to support them.

These are people who work and pay tax and contribute to our local communities but who lack the support that allows them to easily, comfortably do so.

That is what we aim to do. PHI began to connect open-minded and willing private landlords with vetted tenants who would otherwise struggle to access stable housing.

We have worked hard to develop a range of innovative tools and functions – such as our tenant guarantor service – to give landlords the security they need to say ‘yes’, and to be able offer tenants the dignity of a safe, secure home.

People first

PHI works in partnership with charities, local authorities, and housing associations, building a joined-up approach that serves ‘people first’.

In recent months, however, and the reason that this Spending Review allocation to the sector is potentially so exciting, is that we have begun to push further, by exploring the notion of ‘build-to-rent’ (BTR).

BTR offers a powerful way to satisfy a significant portion of our overall housing need, delivering homes that are purpose-built, fit-for-purpose, and designed around the needs of the people we speak to whose needs we aim to serve.

For us, this moves us from simply facilitating access, to becoming participants in the project to deliver quality homes for Londoners.

Uniquely

With Petermans’ many years of property management experience behind us, we feel we are almost uniquely placed to offer a 360-degree service – from identifying suitable sites, to designing accommodation that works for the end users, to working with developers who are aligned with our social vision, to ultimately placing suitable tenants and managing their tenancies in a way that means sympathetic, long-term stewardship.

That was why this Spending Review matters so much. The pledges unveiled on Wednesday really give us hope; not simply because of the funding promise itself, but because of the deeper signals I am hearing – a genuine will to do things differently.

Of course, welcome as it all feels, it is certainly not the whole solution.

Extra funding is always welcome, but it does come with trade-offs. Increased public borrowing will need to be paid for somehow, and it normally comes from taxes – something we will likely feel in the Autumn Budget.

We also need to guard against complacency: these funding pledges are a first step, but what matters is how those promises turn into action.

The housing crisis we face in London is too serious to leave to chance. We need clear timelines, streamlined planning processes, and to form strong partnerships between public, private, and third-sector actors.

On top of that, and something that I feel passionate about improving, is that we desperately need to do this through genuine consultation with local communities.

Build to rent

Nevertheless, this additional funding makes our ambitions in the build-to-rent space more feasible, and more scalable.

We are already in conversations with developers and funders, exploring how we can collaborate to deliver housing that meets the needs of London’s communities.

Whether directly through delivery or by offering advisory support to like-minded operators in the sector, we are ready to step up.

Also, I must acknowledge the work done by organisations such as the National Housing Federation and the Chartered Institute of Housing, as well as many others and indeed many individuals too many to mention.

And we are ready to roll up our sleeves and get stuck in. I truly believe in the inherent good in humanity. I also believe that everyone deserves a safe, secure place to call home.

This week’s announcement has given us real cause for hope and optimism. Now, the real work begins.

By Ben Moser, Managing Director, Petermans Housing Initiative