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Could a quarter of a million homes be built above rail lines?

Is it possible to develop around a quarter of a million new homes in London by building apartments above rail lines? The answer is yes, according to a new report published today.

The report, entitled ‘Out of Thin Air’, says there is the potential to provide all the new homes London needs if existing engineering techniques were used to construct apartment blocks directly above rail, Overground and Underground lines.

Research from the report identified all rail tracks in Transport for London’s (TfL) fare zones 1-6 where there were no breaks in the track made by tunnels, roads or bridges and where there was ten metres of available land on both sides. This would allow for the development of 100m² apartments in buildings rising to 12 storeys. If a conservative 10% of this total was delivered it would provide 250,969 new homes.

The London boroughs of Brent, Ealing and Croydon and TfL Zones 2, 3 and 4 provided the most ‘overbuild’ development potential.

Rail lines with development potential:

Available rail lines for development

Number of hectares available by borough:

Available land by borough

Bill Price, WSP director, said “We have to be more creative in using existing space in what remains a relatively low-rise city. The air rights above rail tracks present an unrealised but significant opportunity to build more new homes on brownfield land. It’s important to emphasise the engineering is absolutely possible and not new. We have been working on projects of this nature in New York for decades. Right now in London we are working on a variety of projects that rise above rail lines including a 50-storey residential tower, homes above a new Crossrail station and even a Premier League stadium.”

“There is a wider point about how we can better connect communities and unlock new homes not just above rail lines but adjacent to them as well. In some parts of London rail lines act as accidental segregators. By ‘decking’ over these lines, such as the proposed regeneration west of Earls Court underground station, we can join together sites to unlock an even higher number of new homes and create new vibrant communities.”

The thinking behind the report emerged after Network Rail appointed WSP in 2012 to study the feasibility of building above rail lines. The study’s conclusions, which focused on the type of decking and noise and vibration issues are detailed in the new report. CGI designs are also provided of what rail overbuild might look like if implemented near a major rail terminal in Central London, above a rail line in West London, and above a station in North London.

Out of Thin Air follows a previous WSP report, ‘Building Our Way Out of a Crisis’, which argued that up to 630,000 new homes in London could be found by building apartments above public buildings such as hospitals and schools.

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Watch out for asbestos when tackling the housing crisis

As the drive to build more new homes in Britain gathers pace, the UK Asbestos Training Association (UKATA) has launched two new courses in April aimed at those developing the brownfield sites that will play a significant role in solving the housing crisis: Asbestos in Soils Awareness and Asbestos in Soils.

The UK is short of housing and with three million new homes needed by 2030, Prime Minister Theresa May has targeted building a million homes by 2020. Greenfield building is mired in controversy, so the key will be brownfield redevelopment and asbestos in soils training will be an essential requirement.

“A million homes is a tall order and those tasked with the development of sites with former industrial use are going to need awareness of asbestos in soils, which these major new courses aim to address,” said UKATA General Manager Craig Evans. “Architects and other such professionals may require the more developed course, but the core syllabus of each will be of great use to all involved in brownfield projects.”

The white paper, Fixing our broken housing market published on 7 February set out government plans to boost new home supply and received a mixed response. Despite calls to give the greenlight to greenbelt building, Communities Secretary Sajid Javid confirmed restrictions on greenbelt building would remain; leaving brownfield central to government plans – and that is going to need specialist training.

Training courses

Asbestos in Soils Awareness is for those working on brownfield sites. The course will assist employers in meeting legal obligations; highlighting how to avoid risks from Asbestos Containing Materials (ACMs) in soil: in both planned work and emergencies. Providing the theoretical skills to undertake work on sites with ACMs; Asbestos in Soils delivers an understanding of actions that must be taken in the event notifiable and/or non-notifiable ACMs are identified and explains the emergency procedures to be implemented in the event of on-site ACM in soils.

“Developers claim brownfield alone can’t solve the housing crisis, but the government position means asbestos in soils courses are a necessity,” added Craig. “Personnel need asbestos in soils awareness to undertake their roles safely, coupled with an understanding of the key asbestos regulations and how they fit the broader context of health and safety legislation.

Those successfully completing these courses will have awareness of the nature and properties of asbestos in soils, its effects on health and know how to avoid the risks from soils and made ground containing ACMs and how to work and stay safe.”

Anyone interested in the new course should contact UKATA direct for a list of training providers.

Tasked by the HSE in 2008 for taking-on, managing and developing the list of training providers for licensed asbestos work in the UK, UKATA is now the leading authority in all levels of asbestos training in the UK. For further information on UKATA, visit www.ukata.org.uk.

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We must tackle the housing crisis – Lords economic affairs committee

The Government must lift its target by 50% and build 300,000 homes each year to tackle the housing crisis, says Lords economic affairs committee.

In their report, Building More Homes, published today, the cross-party House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee have stressed that Local authorities and housing associations must be freed to build substantial numbers of homes for rent and for sale. The report criticises the Government’s housing policy for:

  • Setting a new homes target which will fail to meet the demand for new homes or moderate the rate of house price increases.
  • Restricting local authorities’ access to funding to build more social housing.
  • Creating uncertainty in the already dysfunctional housing market by frequent changes to tax rules and subsidies for house purchases, reductions in social rents, and the extension of the Right to Buy. All of these changes reduce the supply of homes for those who need low cost rental accommodation.
  • A narrow focus on home ownership which neglects those who rent their home.

The Committee makes wide-ranging recommendations to address the housing crisis, including:

  • Restraints on local authority borrowing should be lifted. Local authorities should be free to borrow to fund social housebuilding as they are other building programmes. This would enable local authorities to resume their historic role as one of the major builders of new homes, particularly social housing.

The current historically low cost of borrowing means local authorities could make a large contribution to building the houses we need for the future. Further, the new Prime Minister has announced that the Government will abandon their fiscal target. This paves the way to increase local authority borrowing powers.

  • Council tax should be charged on development that is not completed quickly. The Government’s reliance on private developers to meet its target of new homes is misguided. The private sector housebuilding market is oligopolistic (An oligopoly is a market structure in which a few firms dominate) with the eight largest builders building 50% of new homes.

Their business model is to restrict the volume of housebuilding to maximise their profit margin. To address this the Committee recommend that local authorities are granted the power to levy council tax on developments that are not completed within a set time period.

  • Maximise the use of public land. The Government must take decisive steps to build on the very substantial holdings of surplus publicly owned land. The Committee recommends that a senior Cabinet minister must be given overall responsibility for identifying and coordinating the release of public land for housing, with a particular focus on providing low cost homes. The National Infrastructure Commission should oversee this process.
  • Local authorities should be given the power to increase planning fees to help fund a more efficient planning system and the upper cap on these charges should be much higher than the current limit.

Lord Hollick, Chairman of the Committee, said: “We are facing an acute housing crisis with home ownership – and increasingly renting – being simply unaffordable for a great many people.

“The only way to address this is to increase supply. The country needs to build 300,000 homes a year for the foreseeable future. The private sector alone cannot deliver that. It has neither the ability nor motivation to do so. We need local government and housing associations to get back into the business of building.

“Local authorities are keen to meet this challenge but they do not have the funds or the ability to borrow to embark on a major programme to build new social homes. It makes no sense that a local authority is free to borrow to build a swimming pool but cannot do the same to build homes.

“The Government are too focussed on home ownership which will never be achievable for a great many people and in some areas it will be out of reach even for those on average incomes. Government policy to tackle the crisis must be broadened out to help people who would benefit from good quality, secure rented homes. It is very concerning that changes to stamp duty for landlords and cuts to social rent could reduce the availability of homes for rent. The long term trend away from subsidising tenancies to subsidising home buyers hits the poorest hardest and should be reversed.

“If the housing crisis is to be tackled the Government must allow local authorities to borrow to build and accelerate building on surplus public land.”

Lord Hollick has recorded a video setting out the key recommendations in the report. Watch video below:
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