ICE insights paper: enabling housing growth through infrastructure

Countries around the world are facing housing shortages.

Governments are rethinking how to deliver at scale new homes that are affordable, inclusive, climate resilient and sustainable.

A critical element is delivering the infrastructure needed to make those homes habitable and turn housing developments into communities.

This ICE insights paper explores the links between infrastructure and unlocking sustainable and effective housing growth.

It’s focused on the UK, where the government has set a target of delivering 1.5 million new homes in England over the current parliament.

However, it draws on examples of how other governments are approaching the issue.

It explores the following key points:

• While housing is often a political priority, many governments have not taken a strategic approach to the issue. Housing and infrastructure planning need to be integrated to coordinate the public and private sectors, reduce costs and delays and ensure homes are built where they can have the most social and economic benefits.
• Opposition to development may be overstated and often stems from reasonable fears about pressures on existing infrastructure. Ambitious housing and infrastructure targets put an onus on governments to meaningfully engage with the public about their needs, and the benefits and costs of development.
• Maximising the use of existing infrastructure is an opportunity for more sustainable housing development. Governments need to be mindful of the limitations around capacity and maintenance and upgrade requirements.
• Investment is a major challenge around the world. Land value capture mechanisms could be strengthened but are not a silver bullet. Housing and infrastructure need long-term, place-specific funding commitments, alongside robust project prioritisation and stronger cost controls and productivity gains to improve delivery efficiency.