ICE presidential roundtable: how can governments enable housing growth through infrastructure?

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

This is not just a housing challenge. Each new home requires essential enabling infrastructure to make them liveable and create equitable communities.

This roundtable was chaired by ICE President Professor Jim Hall. He was joined by Cecilia Andersson, programme management officer at the Head of Urban Mobility Section at the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat).

It convened a group of senior infrastructure leaders and practitioners from around the world to discuss why housing and infrastructure have often been planned separately, and how that can change.

The discussion explored the following key points:

• The need for governments to commit to long-term strategic plans, join-up infrastructure and housing and integrate planning with wider objectives, like growth.
• The impact of privatisation of the housing sector and the opportunities from more effective public-private sector partnerships to step up delivery.
• The role of devolution and regional plans in enabling more cross-border, place-based spatial planning.
• The opportunities for reforming the planning system, and the importance of ensuring capacity in the system and meaningful public engagement.
• The funding challenge, investors’ need for certainty and growth opportunities, and the opportunities and risks of land value capture.