UK first housing delivery model aims to help solve housing crisis

Keyland Developments, the property trading arm of Kelda Group and sister company to Yorkshire Water, has unveiled ambitious plans to help solve Yorkshire’s housing crisis.

The firm which is looking to build up the residential side of its business, claims that the current UK model of volume housing delivery doesn’t support sustainable delivery or the requirements of individual councils to meet demand for different types of homes.

As result it has created a new housing delivery model which in a UK first, is underpinned by a set of environmental, social and financial measures which will be tracked by a unique valuation tool in order to ensure delivery of sustainable communities.

The model aims builds on the last five years work by Keyland to extend its services to other landowners through its Planning Promotional Agreement (PPA) initiative, resulting in eight residential developments which will bring forward over 4,000 homes around the region.

With PPAs now forming half of Keyland’s residential business, the team is focussing its next five-year business plan on growing this side of the business by working with major landowners, including local authorities, to bring forward land in order to deliver the much needed new homes.

The firm has also confirmed it will take on a master developer role to work with housebuilders and organisations such as housing associations and later-living housing providers to create a more organic mix of house.

This new valuation tool – developed by leading sustainability consultants 3ADAPT – is based on the organisation’s ‘Six Capitals’ model to calculate direct, indirect and enabled value delivered from its developments, in order to better create a more holistic approach to residential development. It will now be used across 1,300 acres of land in Yorkshire which is currently owned by Keyland, and will inform its work with partners and local councils.

Peter Garrett, Managing Director of Keyland Developments, said; “This is an incredibly exciting time for Keyland. Having successfully built our PPA business over the last five years, we now have bold ambitions to be the development enabler of choice for both private and public sector landowners both across the County. It’s our view that the existing model of housing delivery simply will not solve the housing crisis in Yorkshire as it does not support council policy, nor will it easily deliver truly sustainable development. By implementing our ‘Six Capitals’ model and evaluating the non-financial values alongside the financial, we can take a more holistic approach and ensure that the total value of a development is explicitly considered. Crucially, our master developer role will address the mix of uses being delivered and incorporate the self/custom-build model which we see as being increasingly important to the future of residential development. In short, we’re looking to change how houses are built and how they are bought.

“The expert team at 3ADAPT have devised the valuation tool, which we understand is the only one in the UK to take into account indirect and enabled as well as direct impacts, making it a truly pioneering and unique resource and one new to the property industry. We are incredibly proud to be at the forefront of residential development innovation and, whilst they may be ambitious, our aspirations to help solve the housing crisis for Yorkshire while facilitating sustainable developments of excellence are wholly deliverable. We are in a privileged position in that we have a strong reputation based on trust and we want to build on that to change the face of housing delivery for the better.”

At present Keyland is currently involved in promoting over 8,500 homes and 4.5million sq ft of commercial space – the most in its history.