October 2006 - News - Helping Out in Cairo
The Egyptian Government is planning to build 500,000 affordable apartments over the next 6 years. There is limited design guidance available, and HATC were invited to make a number of presentations on how we regulate standards in England. The invitation came from the Housing and National Building Research Centre (HBRC) in Cairo, and was extended because of our experience in co-author in the National Housing Federations Guide to Standards & Quality, and the recent work on space standards undertaken for the GLA (read more).
The HBRC is an independent governmental research establishment working under the supervision of the Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Development. It is similar to our Building Research Establishment.
The HBRC has established six working groups who are together developing design codes for new affordable housing. Andrew Drury, HATC Managing Director, gave a presentation to the six working groups on how design standards are set and implemented in the English housing market.
Earlier, Andrew had discussed affordable housing funding approaches with the governmental adviser to the Minister responsible for delivering the new programme.
The issues that the Egyptians face are very similar in many ways to the issues with which we wrestle:
- Design guidance needs to reflect how residents wish to live their lives or the dwellings and neighbourhoods will be unpopular and less sustainable;
- There is the inevitable tension between standards and costs; and the Government inevitably wishes to obtain the "best value" for the subsidy provided. But how is "best value" measured? More houses, at a lower average level of affordability, or fewer dwellings that help those most in need?
- Does it really does enhance community sustainability to "encourage" people of different income levels, lifestyles or cultures to live cheek by jowl, or whether a policy of small-scale zoning may be better.
- Finally, just how much car ownership should we anticipate, over the next few decades, when designing dwellings and estates now?
The differences between our housing sectors and cultures are more immediately obvious but are probably of less significance than the similarities. For the worst housing, standards are lower in Egypt than in England, although it is unclear whether the mismatch between standards and residents expectations is significantly different. Local builders undertaking small-scale developments have great difficulty raising working capital from banks or other formal lending institutions, and so they raise capital by pre-lets to the future residents. These residents are able to provide their cash downpayment by drawing upon their family network rather than drawing upon a lending institution. It is as if each extended family is a small-scale building society, pulling their savings and "lending" it to the member who wishes to access housing. This brief visit to Cairo was an intensive and extremely interesting. We look forward to continuing to be able to assist the HBRC in their work. HATC News...Helping Out in Cairo The Egyptian Government is planning to build 500,000 affordable apartments over the next 6 years. There is limited design guidance available, and HATC were invited to make a number of presentations on how we regulate standards in England. The invitation came from the Housing and National Building Research Centre (HBRC) in Cairo, and was extended because of our experience in co-author in the National Housing Federations Guide to Standards & Quality, and the recent work on space standards undertaken for the GLA(read more).
The HBRC is an independent governmental research establishment working under the supervision of the Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Development. It is similar to our Building Research Establishment. The HBRC has established six working groups who are together developing design codes for new affordable housing. Andrew Drury, HATC Managing Director, gave a presentation to the six working groups on how design standards are set and implemented in the English housing market. Earlier, Andrew had discussed affordable housing funding approaches with the governmental adviser to the Minister responsible for delivering the new programme. The issues that the Egyptians face are very similar in many ways to the issues with which we wrestle: • Design guidance needs to reflect how residents wish to live their lives or the dwellings and neighbourhoods will be unpopular and less sustainable;
- There is the inevitable tension between standards and costs; and the Government inevitably wishes to obtain the "best value" for the subsidy provided. But how is "best value" measured? More houses, at a lower average level of affordability, or fewer dwellings that help those most in need?
- Does it really does enhance community sustainability to "encourage" people of different income levels, lifestyles or cultures to live cheek by jowl, or whether a policy of small-scale zoning may be better.
- Finally, just how much car ownership should we anticipate, over the next few decades, when designing dwellings and estates now?
The differences between our housing sectors and cultures are more immediately obvious but are probably of less significance than the similarities. For the worst housing, standards are lower in Egypt than in England, although it is unclear whether the mismatch between standards and residents expectations is significantly different. Local builders undertaking small-scale developments have great difficulty raising working capital from banks or other formal lending institutions, and so they raise capital by pre-lets to the future residents. These residents are able to provide their cash downpayment by drawing upon their family network rather than drawing upon a lending institution. It is as if each extended family is a small-scale building society, pulling their savings and "lending" it to the member who wishes to access housing.
This brief visit to Cairo was an intensive and extremely interesting. We look forward to continuing to be able to assist the HBRC in their work.