More companies back Place North’s Mind the Gap campaign

Businesses from all corners of the built environment sector are throwing their weight behind a campaign to pressure government into providing grant funding to solve the North’s viability crisis. Have you signed up yet?

Labour’s planning reforms are all well and good but in order to really get the North building, significant state intervention to unlock sites and overcome negative land values is required.

For years, housing providers, developers, and investors have been loud and clear about what needs to be done to tackle the housing crisis. Place North has listened and is taking action.

Alongside Cavendish and Lichfields, we have launched Mind the Gap, a campaign for a government discretionary grant aid programme for the North.

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We believe that intervention to address viability is the only way the government can hope to achieve its ambitious target of 1.5m homes by the end of the parliament.

It is time the Northern property market had a unified voice to take the issues that matter to our industry directly to Downing Street. This campaign aims to do just that.

Since launching the campaign late last year, the property industry has responded en masse. Some of the North’s biggest developers, councils, and consultancies have already signed up in support of the Mind the Gap campaign by adding their names to the list of signatories.

These include:

Cert Property, Genesis Homes, Placefirst, Turner & Townsend, Cityheart, Cushman & Wakefield, Hill Dickinson, Richborough Estates, Fairhurst Architects, Step Places, Mansell Building Solutions, Caro Developments, Hive Land & Planning, Casey Group, JLL, Persimmon Homes, Sheppard Robson, Chancerygate, Deetu, Alderley Group, BA Commercial, Cassel & Fletcher, Gleeds, Roberts Real Estate, OMD, Cubico, Story Homes, Mott MacDonald, Oakmere Homes, Brabners, Walker Sime, BDP, Sigma Capital, SimpsonHaugh, NJL Consulting, CBRE, Jarron Investments, Mosaic Town Planning, Progressive Living, Morgan Sindall Construction, Cole Waterhouse, BXB Land Solutions, MCI Developments, Maro Developments, Kirklees Council, Hull City Council, Savills, DLA Architecture, Layer.studio, Enabl, Manchester City Council, Ollier Smurthwaite Architects, and many more.

If you work in property, you can show your support by adding your name to the signatories of this campaign – just enter your name, job title, and company below. The more people that sign, the more power the campaign has. Multiple people can sign from the same company.

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Lisa Marsh, associate director of partnerships at Peel Land, said viability support is vital if the North is to deliver on its potential.

“The North has the greatest to gain, the land to make it happen and the will to deliver,” she said.

“Viability support is crucial to unlock sites, particularly large strategic sites where effort reaps significant reward to make meaningful headway to reach the government’s 1.5m homes target.”

She added: “The Northern way is to not shy away from a challenge, but to be at the forefront of the response, confident in the ability to deliver, as a collective, in partnership, and at scale.  This way viability intervention can break down barriers to opportunity, kickstart economic growth and deliver places fit for the communities of the North.”

Danny Hope, regional director for the North West at Hydrock now Stantec, said: “I have long been an advocate for building on brownfield sites but of course this comes with viability challenges.

“I’m backing Place North’s Mind the Gap campaign as I believe that increased government intervention in this area is long overdue and is much needed to help ensure the North gets its fair share of government funding and has its chance to grow and prosper.”

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