Insight: Prince’s plans to end misery of homelessness could start in the Duchy

There can be no doubting Prince William’s sincerity in wanting to help solve the UK’s homelessness crisis. 

After an eye-opening trip to a homeless shelter as an 11-year-old with his mother, the late Princess Diana, the plight of those with nowhere to live has clearly preyed heavily on his mind. 

In June he unveiled a £3m project, Homewards, to bring together businesses, charities, and individuals in six areas of the UK.  He hopes that by focussing attention in these pilot areas, from Bournemouth on the south coast to Aberdeen in Scotland - providing £500,000 of seed-funding in each area - he can deliver systemic change and begin to eliminate homelessness. 

In a statement the Prince said:

“In a modern and progressive society, everyone should have a safe and secure home, be treated with dignity and given the support they need. Through Homewards, I want to make this a reality and over the next five years, give people across the UK hope that homelessness can be prevented when we collaborate.” 

Half a million pounds in each area won’t, on its own, make a very big contribution to the creation of more homes.  It may help to get projects off the ground, but it is landowners and developers who are going to have to do the heavy lifting to meet the housing shortfall – and do so against an increasingly challenging economic and environmental background. 

The Prince, however, does have some practical levers he can pull. He is one of the nation’s most significant landowners, now running the Duchy of Cornwall, which is made up of 52,449 hectares of land across 20 counties. 

The Prince is already a landlord of some scale. There are around 600 rented properties in the Duchy, the majority leased to tenants, spread from the Isles of Scilly to Kennington, in south London.  When his father, King Charles, was running the Duchy, before his accession to the throne, he built two new towns, the first at Poundbury, in Dorset and most recently, Nansledan, near Newquay in Cornwall.   

In Poundbury 35% of homes are affordable housing for rent, shared ownership or discounted to open market sale. In Nansledan 30% are affordable housing provided as a mixture of rented and shared equity housing. These are tenure blind and distributed throughout Nansledan, helping to create a mixed community. 

From Prince William’s heavy hints, it seems highly likely that the next housing project undertaken in the Duchy will be to build properties for rent. When asked if there was scope for creating more affordable homes on Duchy land the Prince told journalists:

“There is.  Absolutely. Social housing.  You’ll see that when its ready.” 

If part of the Prince’s plan is to build more social housing on land he owns through the Duchy, then he may – like any landowner or developer – face some resistance.  He may need help with communicating his plans in a positive way to the existing communities affected and the planners who must consider and approve his proposals. He would do well to start that process as early as possible. 

There is likely to be broad support for the principle of building social housing and the Duchy already has a well-earned reputation for creating attractive communities that are sympathetic to their surroundings. 

But building in rural areas is not without its challenges and all new development is likely to become even more challenging when the government’s new planning legislation comes into effect in November. 

This will require the majority of new housing projects, with one or two exemptions, to deliver a biodiversity net gain.  The intention is for the improvement in habitat to be on the same site where new homes are built. But it will be possible to create habitat off-site or – as a last resort – to buy biodiversity credits from the government so the development can go ahead. 

The minimum biodiversity boost that must be recorded will be set at 10% - but already some local planning authorities are pledging to go further, setting the bar higher in order to do more to help reverse the decline in wildlife in Britain 

The public mood clearly favours making more space for nature and looking after the landscape more effectively for the good of wildlife.  The latest UK State of Nature report, published in 2019, showed a 13% decline in the average abundance of wildlife in the UK since the 1970s. Clearly there is much more work to do and legislation to bring about biodiversity net gain as a requirement on new development ought to help that process. 

If Prince William takes the lead on Duchy land, building high quality homes that are available at affordable rents or through shared ownership schemes he will be demonstrating his personal support, as a landowner, to the worthy aim to wiping out the scourge of homelessness.  He will also be doing so in a way that enhances the environment.  There will be other land owners ready to follows his lead. 

KOR provides communications advice and support to landed estates and developers seeking planning approval for new projects.