JLGC Seminar 2021 report – Housing Policy in Japan and the UK

Activities and Events

JLGC Seminar

JLGC Seminar 2021: Housing Policy in Japan and the UK – Homes Made for Everyone

8 March 2021 – Online

As local governments grapple with how to secure the best supply of new housing to meet the needs of local communities in a post-pandemic world, they must also ensure that homes are affordable and sustainable.  This was the theme of our first online seminar, Homes Made for Everyone, which looked at how Japanese housing and land use policies have attracted the attention of UK policymakers as a potential source of innovative practices, with public sector housing provision and Modern Methods of Construction (MMC, also known as modular or off-site manufactured homes) in particular now the focus of a partnership between the UK government Homes England agency and Japanese homebuilder Sekisui House.

UK local authorities and housing companies have engaged with such solutions in a number of new developments to quickly assemble low-cost homes to tackle homelessness, which can also enable local governments in both countries to deliver housing aligned with the UN SDGs around sustainability, well-being and economic growth.  This year’s JLGC Seminar examined policy approaches to meeting the housing challenges faced by local authorities in both the UK and Japan, including what part urban solutions from Japan can play to increase the supply of affordable low carbon homes in the UK.

The event brought together senior housing and planning officials and experts from the UK and Japan in a dialogue aimed at better understanding the current appetite for innovation in housing and planning, learning from projects and best practice to date, including Japan’s IoT-led Housing as a Service model.

Moderator – Richard Vize, public policy expert and commentator

Opening remarks: Yasuyuki Suzuki, Director General, Japan Local Government Centre

Presentation: Harry Swales, Executive Director, Homes England

Session 1: UR Presentation (click link to download presentation file)

  • During the pandemic, housing has become an even greater necessity. This theme gives us the invaluable opportunity to learn from each other about the importance of housing policy.
  • Japan and the UK share similar demographics, including an ageing population, and therefore can share many ideas about housing policy.
  • There has been a lack of housing in the UK for a long time and the challenge is to make more affordable housing available. The government aims to build 300,000 houses a year, with the goal of constructing 1 million homes by 2024.
  • Homes England, the body responsible for increasing the availability of housing in England, secures the land needed for the construction of housing by bringing together both the private and public sectors and combining various funds to promote investment in housing.

Presentation and Q&A: Urban Renaissance Agency of Japan (UR)

Section Chiefs Akihiko Kubo, Jun Adachi, Shuichi Murakami

  • UR’s predecessor organisation the Japan Housing Corporation was established in July 1995 to alleviate the post-war lack of housing. In 2004, UR was started as a new independent administrative corporation offering a rich variety of living spaces. UR works together with local regions to create community development, working on urban renewal projects in Tokyo, Omotemachi and other areas. They also work on living environment projects, creating housing in response to the ageing society.
  • UR operates in the following three areas:
    1. Urban regeneration: aim to promote urban regeneration and implement highly politically significant projects in cooperation with the private sector and local authorities, such as strengthening the international competitiveness of cities, revitalizing suburban cities and improving crowded urban areas.
    2. Rental Housing: As well as being responsible for about 720,000 rental houses, promotes housing and towns which provide for the lifestyles of all generations in response to the decreasing birth rate and ageing population.
    3. Reconstruction after Disasters: Promotes reconstruction and restoration after the Great East Japan Disaster, the Kumamoto Earthquake and other big disasters since the Great Hanshin Earthquake.
  • UR improves multi-unit apartment buildings by rebuilding, consolidating and renovating existing rental houses, and advancing urban development by redeveloping parks and making facilities more attractive. Because of the lack of lifts in older apartment buildings, lifts are added for the convenience of elderly people.  Furthermore, sites created by the reconstruction of residential high-rise buildings, are used for facilities for the elderly, childcare or residential sites for private developers.
  • The Nouvel Akabanedai reconstruction project aimed to revitalize a multi-unit apartment building at its surrounding areas. A study of measures to promote regional revitalization and decide the direction of Akabanedai town planning was held by experts from UR in construction planning, economics and city planning. However, each block of land had an architectural team, landscape and lighting designer responsible for the project. UR members established a ‘design coordination meeting’ with the goal of creating a town that balances the individuality of each block with overall harmony.
  • In one part of Nouvel Akabanedai, there are four remaining retro buildings, including one called Star House which looks like a star when viewed from above. We can learn about daily life in the 1960s from this building and it has been recognised as a tangible cultural property. Also, the project ‘Open Smart UR’ is implemented in this building, suggesting a new lifestyle through the use of AI and IoT innovations in the rooms. Working in collaboration with Toyo University’s Department of Information Networking for Innovation and Design (INIAD), UR created ‘Open Smart UR’ as a service that uses IoT and AI. It was based on the original HaaS (housing as a service) concept and is one of three services for use in daily life.

Panel discussion

The session explored the housing challenge and planning context in the UK and Japan to better understand the needs of communities in a post-pandemic world, including the role of international partnerships and knowledge sharing around innovation.

• Harry Swales, Executive Director, Homes England

• Jenny Preece, Deputy Director, Planning – Infrastructure, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

• James Gleeson, Housing Research and Analysis Manager, Greater London Authority

  • Jenny Preece: To address the problem of the lack of affordable housing in the UK, it is necessary to consider four angles:
    1. Support the building of affordable housing by providing government subsidies to housing constructors. The affordable housing project by the government in England has secured a budget of 11.5 billion pounds over five years.
    2. Understanding the hopes and needs of people whether they are renting or living in a detached house, and be able to provide housing for them. UR are building rental housing and in England half of the homes built as part of the government’s affordable housing programme are rental homes, the other half supports those who want to buy affordable housing.
    3. As UR referenced in their presentation, the creation of pleasant environments. I was very interested in this when I listened to UR’s presentation. It’s not only about housing, it’s important to make a good environment where people want to live by improving the surrounding area and having access to shops and services.
    4. Safety of newly built and existing homes. It’s important to learn from the Grenfell Tower fire. UR values the voices of tenants and listens to them, which is so important.
  • It’s impressive that UR takes responsibility throughout, from building homes to renting them out.
  • James Gleeson: I am responsible for housing surveys at the GLA and also work with urban development and housing strategy.
  • The GLA is responsible for city planning and supervises development across London. We plan to provide housing that contributes to society, the environment and the economy in London.
  • Furthermore, we have provided four billion pounds of grants in five years to promote the provision of sustainable housing.
  • UR’s presentation showed that Japan has a flexible housing policy, quickly increasing the number of homes after World War 2, meeting the needs of consumers and an aging society.

Session 2: Modern Methods of Construction (click link to download presentation file)

Presentation: Mark Farmer, UK Government MMC Champion

  • Productivity in the UK construction industry has not risen in the last 30 to 40 years and is struggling to find workers to the extent that it relies on workers who come from the EU. MMC is needed in order to solve the UK’s housing crisis.
  • The Government promotes the use of MMC when constructing houses. The agenda clearly sets out a proposed budget for adopting MMC.
  • There are three challenges facing the construction industry.
    1. Since the 2017 Grenfell Tower Fire, the government has viewed the safety of housing with the utmost importance.
    2. Sustainable construction.
    3. Improving brand strength for home builders, designers, quality and consumer after care for home builders.
  • Homes England worked in collaboration with Sekisui House in May 2019 to promote MMC home construction. Judging by Sekisui House’s company brochure, their approach to customers is different to ours. Consumer and environment changes are mentioned everywhere. Sekisui House provides quality assurance and offers extended warranty periods through inspections.  As they can do this kind of quality assurance, it shows that Sekisui house has confidence in its products. Also, as detached houses are often constructed in factories in Japan, such a proposal is possible.  UK Construction Industry needs to consider its priorities and it is necessary to grow by offering real value to customers.

Panel discussion

The session explored the recent history of MMC in the UK, from the unique collaboration between the UK and Japan to deliver homes at volume across a number of developments, through to local authority projects using the latest off-site construction methods.

• Mark Farmer, UK Government MMC Champion, Founding Director and CEO, Cast Consultancy

• Pat Hayes, Managing Director, Be First (Barking and Dagenham Council)

• Alexis Harris, Senior Policy Officer – Housing and Land, Greater London Authority

• Sir Steve Bullock, Chair, PLACE London (London Councils)

  • Pat Hayes: I work at Be First, a Housing Construction Company directly run by London’s Barking and Dagenham Council. As Barking and Dagenham is one of the UK’s five most deprived areas, our goal is to offer affordable, easy to live in and easy to maintain rental housing.  We developing our own architecture and design team and are working on designs to expand MMC housing construction.
  • Be First is a London affordable housing programme that has built about 20 percent of London’s affordable housing. Last year 300 houses were built and again this year 300 houses were built. There are plans to provide a further 500 houses.
  • In the UK, home builders focus on sales and setting prices low. However, in order to recover this loss in various ways, pressure is put on the supply chain causing a loss in quality of products, management is lost, they fall into extremely inadequate working conditions which directly lead to events like the Grenfell Fire. If MMC is used, at the first step of the bidding process with independent contractors, the quality and price is made clear, so it is possible to offer safe and affordable housing.
  • Many MMC homes were built in the 60s and 70s. However, now the appearance and quality of these homes is bad so the government must overturn this image and promote MMC.
  • Alexis Harris: In order to stimulate the supply of housing in London, the London Mayor endorsed MMC and assigned four billion pounds of the budget to it. The programme oversaw the construction of 82000 homes over five years. Under this programme, home builders were asked to share quite detailed information about what MMC technology was being used, which was used to build data about MMCs in London.
  • As Mark talked about, the quality and safety of buildings is very important. four years ago, 72 people tragically lost their lives in the Grenfell Tower Fire. Since then, the Mayor of London has dedicated a lot of time and energy to improving house safety.
  • As Mark spoke about, home builders in Japan have follow-up services after construction. I’ve read articles about home builders offering repairs after typhoons and earthquakes. It’s very interesting to consider securing quality and safety as part of the role of the construction industry. When considering the role of MMC in the UK, I think Japan’s example could be very instructive.
  • Sir Steve Bullock, Chair, PLACE London: I am the Chair of PLACE, an enterprise jointly established by some London boroughs. We use high-quality home units to counter homelessness. Homelessness is a big challenge for local authorities, especially in the London boroughs.
  • The deadline for MMC is met, moreover it is delivered quickly. Once the heavy machinery is delivered, the home is ready to live in within about three weeks.
  • In the next few months, there are plans to complete 16 units, after that 40-50 units will be built.

Q and A Session

Question 1: What are UR’s initiatives for intergenerational living? 

UR: Make buildings barrier-free and attract facilities for elderly people.

Question 2: As apartment buildings are restored, is there a way for rental tenants to express their opinions? 

UR: When rebuilding, the renter’s opinions were listened to and the project is proceeding according to plan.

Question 3: How is UR working with local government to solve the problem of depopulation in rural areas? Do you think UR’s urban development has an effect on depopulation? 

UR: Rural depopulation is a pressing problem in Japan. We don’t know if UR’s urban development has had an effect, but we make efforts to revitalize rural towns. If requested by local governments who are experiencing depopulation, we support them with new urban developments.

Question 4: What is needed to supply affordable housing?

Harry Swales: In order to be able to quickly provide a supply of affordable housing, you need enough land to build the housing on at an appropriate pace. For local authorities, if we could make a decision about land at an earlier stage, local governments and independent contractors could plan various types of housing, the expected value would be more certain and more homes could be created.