Fair to Middling, and how Pocket fits in
The latest report to be published on London’s housing crisis, Fair to Middling, is specifically focused on intermediate housing, whether it’s working, and how it can be improved. The Commission on Intermediate Housing (COIH) was set up following the Centre for London’s 2014 report, Hollow Promise, which highlighted that London needed to prioritise ways of making housing for low- to-middle income earners more affordable. The COIH has been jointly chaired by councillors from two very different London boroughs, Kensington & Chelsea and Haringey, with input from a range of eminent contributors – including Pocket’s very own CEO, Marc Vlessing.
The overall conclusion is, unsurprisingly, that London needs more intermediate housing to serve the needs of our invaluable modest earning workforce. The report is well-worth a read by anyone involved in intermediate housing in any way, whether an industry professional or a customer. There’s a good collection of case studies scattered throughout which brings the data to life; and there’s a section about Pocket’s contribution so far on page 71.
Most importantly, the report reminds us that we need to keep doing more to help working modest earners find decent and secure homes across the city. Pocket is fully supportive of any and all developments in the intermediate housing market, especially those that innovate and push the boundaries in the way that Pocket’s model does. Not all ideas will work, but the more we work to try new ideas and find new ways of retaining London’s city makers by offering them a way of staying in the parts of London that they’ve chosen to make their home, the more successful our city can be – both as a player on the world stage, and as a good place that ordinary people want, and are able, to call home.