https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-wBItE-ayo
Next to food and clothing, the Declaration of Human Rights lists housing as the third fundamental need for any human being. The current supply of housing in the UK does not met the demand as a result of limited amount of land, insufficient replacement of inefficient existing stock and rise in population. As part of the BRE + G4C project on Open Data in the Construction we investigate the use of Open Data in Housing.
Stephen Wooldridge, Sustainability Manager at Barratt Homes, helps us understanding the main hurdles slowing down housing delivery in the UK. The problems always sourced from the same three areas; Planning, Skills and Community Engagement.
- Planning remains to be seen as a major risk, and one from which, in its current format, is difficult to learn from.
- Skills have recently become a pressing issue due to the difficulty in replacing an ageing workforce, and an inability to attract a new generation to our industry.
- Community Engagement is wrongly seen as a risk, and alternatively it could and should be approached as an opportunity to create consensus and support for quality investment.
Benjamin Cave, from 21C Consultancy, addresses Stephen’s points and highlights the opportunity that Open Data has to increase transparency, simplify processes and share visions. One by one, all of the historical hurdles to housing delivery could be overcome if the industry decided to come together and innovate.
To learn more, please watch the video!