The housing market is a key provider of business for Legal & General. Helping people to safeguard their homes through contents and life insurance is an important part of our business model.
Housing is central to Legal & General's business. Through our own work and our partnerships across the market we sell and rent houses, we sell mortgages, we sell insurance to cover the homes these mortgages buy, and we cover the life insurance needs of the people and families who buy these homes
We're aware that for every customer we help onto and up the "housing ladder" there are many who won't get these opportunities, and during their lives, even those we have helped may face hard times and crises. With the recession, we're now all too aware of the rise in mortgage and rent arrears and repossessions.
So as our business benefits from a strong housing market, we feel we should also put something back into this market and our partnership with Shelter is our chosen way of doing this.
It's all too easy to forget, living as most of us do in comfortable homes, with good jobs, that for many people in the UK, finding somewhere safe, dry, warm and affordable to live is a real struggle. According to Government figures in 2008, over half a million households including over a million children live in overcrowded housing in this country, and nearly 1.8 million households are currently on local authority waiting lists.
Housing is the key factor in determining a person's wellbeing and possible future prospects in life. Poor housing leads to poor health, poor education and job prospects. We believe that it should be a given in our civilised society that this basic need is met.
The recession has hit the housing market hard, with traditional sources of capital for Social Housing provision drying up, resulting in a severe reduction in the number of new affordable homes being built. Given the current level of housing need, projected future demand for homes, and pressure on public finances, we could feel the impact of this slowdown for generations to come.
Shelter is a housing campaigning organization. They work to drive up the supply of affordable homes in places where people can thrive and ensure that people in need of housing can access and keep a home. Shelter, like many in the housing sector, believes that we must act now to reinvigorate housing delivery to ensure the continued supply of much needed new homes throughout the downturn and beyond.
To understand the role that we can play we have started working closely with Shelter on areas of common ground.
- We sponsored and engaged in Shelter's "Ground Breaking" research and discussions, which provided new ideas on housing delivery and to provide a forum for senior representatives from across the housing sector and government to identify and discuss new approaches to housing delivery, and how these new models could be put into practice. Ideas and perspectives put forward during discussions, and positive feedback provided some valuable insights for Shelter in determining how to take their housing delivery work forward, particularly on the issue of how to attract private finance into residential housing development. Printed and electronic copies of the "Ground Breaking" report have been widely disseminated amongst Shelter's national, regional and local contacts. Around 10,000 downloads of the report have taken place to date.
- Legal & General Property has signed a "letter of Intent" to work with the HCA (Homes and Communities Agency) to develop new funding models.
- To get a practical understanding of homelessness L&G is helping to fund a project to help avoid teenage homelessness in Gloucestershire.
In 2010, we will investigate the viability and risks of delivering a home contents insurance plan targeting low-income households and social tenants.
Shelter can also offer us insight and advice on addressing planning concerns on Key Developments.
We will continue to engage staff on the issue of homelessness particularly those in our Housing Business to raise funds for Shelter.
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