Infrastructure for housing development

Hitting the million homes development mark will require industry to work together. What sort of infrastructure is needed before housing developments begin and what can be done to improve this to accelerate delivery?

Ian Nicholson, CEEQUAL & infrastructure, BRE, comments:

The key thing for me about the housing infrastructure fund, is that it is showing a glimpse of some joined-up thinking. If implemented correctly, it will enable a systems thinking approach to be used.

For so long housing developments have been agreed with little consideration for the wider infrastructure needs. This predominantly leads to more congestion and resulting air pollution on our roads. It also manifests itself in the wider transport system where we hear many stories of train overcrowding. Then we need to consider is the capacity of our water, sewerage and energy systems too.

New houses must be planned in conjunction with all sectors of infrastructure to ensure a system-wide approach to infrastructure and housing solutions so that they work seamlessly for home occupants. Otherwise the result will be worse air quality, longer journey times and over-stretched utility networks.

So, if we are to deliver one million new homes then we will need to deliver even more elements of new or substantially improved infrastructure, and this takes resources both human and physical. With so many major infrastructure projects underway, finding the right number of skilled people to work on projects will be a major challenge. From an environmental perspective the infrastructure sector is one of the largest resource intensive industries. Building even more means that we need to get even smarter with our resource use. This is where new technologies can come to our assistance to help us build more smartly and more quickly with less people.

BRE’s solutions and services can assist in helping industry to understand how to grapple these issues, whether it be BREEAM Communities to help make the most of a new community, to CEEQUAL our infrastructure standard; to Home Quality Mark for new Homes. Together, these solutions can help make our new homes and the infrastructure they rely upon, better for us all and our planet.

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