Rise up: The case for providing homes for key workers in the airspace above existing buildings

This publication is from UCL Institute for Global Prosperity

Introduction from Professor Henrietta L. Moore:

Real incomes are falling and the number of affordable homes for London’s key urban workers is not meeting the demand. Key urban workers are faced with the challenging decision of whether to remain in the city and risk falling into abject poverty, or to leave the city either to work elsewhere, or to suffer long commutes around already challenging shift patterns. Londoners cannot expect to have their lives supported by key urban workers if those key urban workers are living in poverty themselves.

This document lays out a credible, well-considered solution to the core issue underpinning the systemic issue of a lack of affordable housing for London’s key urban workers: the price of land. Supported by rigorous academic research, the model proposed is presented at an opportune moment, with a strong appetite from the Government for extending existing buildings upwards. One of Skyroom’s best facets is to make the most of existing, inhabitable rooftops, enabling enormous savings to be made through significantly reducing the cost of land and thus making house-building much cheaper. Homes become more affordable, and the cost of a minimum living standard is reduced.

Housing is one of four areas which we at The Institute for Global Prosperity (IGP) consider to be a basic service; a fundamental building block of life in the 21st Century which we propose that there should be universal access to. Skyroom homes will deliver multiple important benefits to residents, including drastically reduced commuting times, affording key urban workers the time to take more rest, to spend more time at leisure and to connect with people at home and in their neighbourhoods. Here is an opportunity to strengthen societal cohesion and civic pride, through connecting key urban workers with each other and the communities they serve, and providing them with beautiful, affordable, sustainable homes. 

The IGP is launching this white paper with Skyroom as we are searching for innovative solutions to future-proof our cities. Our contribution forms part of the work we have been doing on social prosperity, which also includes the development of the concept of Universal Basic Services. We are committed to supporting and influencing public debate around new ideas, sustainable investment in social infrastructures, and public policy aimed at improving the quality of people’s lives.

We at the IGP seek to support those entrepreneurs who set out to tackle the big challenges of the 21st Century and do so in a way that creates shared social, environmental and economic impact. Skyroom is such a solution. A well-considered, technically viable, environmentally sustainable and socially progressive answer to the current problem of providing affordable housing for key urban workers in London. The model laid out in this paper provides a blueprint which will contribute to the transformation of our cities into healthy, sustainable, functional urban ecosystems.